Lancia Motor Club

Rather than post lots of topics about various bits of rusty metal, I thought I might do a diary of sorts. I suppose they are called blogs in modern parlance, but this is as much a reminder for me as anything else !

If this is the wrong place to share this I am sure the editor/moderator/you will let me know......

I am lucky that PGY is a very sound and original car that needs a few things tidying and sorting to make her a reliable and usable "weekend" car, so I am starting with the "what needs to be done" before moving on to the "nice to do"

So please read on (or not) and comment as you see fit

Fuel System

This was the major cause of problems on the way here, and as we know you cannot start one job without creating several others !

The boot area has been cleaned and the surface rust on the floor treated, the paint colour is the nearest I can get mixed in a "hammerite" paint.
I dismantled the complex fuel gauge, cleaned and rebuilt it. It was very rusty and seized. The tube I cleaned with a flexible hone and everything else was washed in acetone before re-assembling.
All the lights work on the dash so it waits to be seen if it works with petrol in the tank .

 

I don't have an Aprilia, but it always good to see what other people are up to and hints on how to tackle generic jobs.

Good luck, keep up the good work and keep posting.

                       Andy

Re last picture, must be one large and long starting handle to go in that hole ;) ;) ;)  looks much better though ::)

One of my favourite jobs - removing 65 years of underseal and grime - although these were not too bad !

First a scrape, then wire brush, then small wire brush on the airdrill. Finally wash down with degreaser, I tend to use acetone because it is very effective and makes my latex gloves last longer. White spirit, petrol etc. rots them in about 30 secs

Instead of just spraying over the whole lot with underseal I decided to clean off the muck and repaint in a colour similar to the body colour because the inner wheelarches were originally body coloured (original paint still visible under the bitumen) Not sure what I am going to do with the main floor yet, underseal or paint ......

First,  primer on the rusty bits and then my hammerite-equivalent over the top. Quick spray with waxoyl and it should last a bit longer. It's not perfect but will do until I have to take the wings off one day.

The torsion bar markers I cleaned in petrol so as not to dissolve the paint (rotten gloves!) and then used a silicon polish to brighten them up and protect them before refitting.

All looks much brighter !

Picture of offside - instead of 2 x nearside

There's a lot to be said for just paint in arches and on floors, if you have the pressure washer handy and trust yourself to keep an eye on it. 

David

Simon,

Keep on with the photos, but I have to say they are making me increasingly envious! The drive shafts look like the long original Italian ones rather that the short and sometimes clonky Hardy Spicer shafts fitted to most of the Aprilias that I ever came across. Oh lucky man! Keep them well lubed.

Colin

Mathilda "andjuliet" away for a few days so lots of garage and blog time !

Rear bumper and brackets removed, brackets rubbed down and repainted. With the tank out it meant I could reweld one of the captive nuts for the brackets. All the bolts are too long hence the spacers - short metric-fine bolts on the Christmas present list

The bumper was a bit oxidised so I took off the rubber strips and used 000 wire wool on the outside and wire brush on the inside to clean up the bumper. Fortunately all the nuts holding it together are brass so no problem dis-assembling. I found an aluminium primer for the inside before repainting with silver hammerite.

The old stickers took some removing !

The rubber strips were cleaned up with a rubber and vinyl cleaner before refitting with new brass nuts and washers

The bumper without brackets is incredibly light - I didn't weigh it it but you can easily lift it with your little finger. Juliet came into the garage shortly after I had cleaned it and I passed it over to her , pretending it weighed half a hundredweight and she nearly threw it over her shoulder ! Looks pretty, but not much use as a bumper.

2 Controle techniques (MOTs) tomorrow so not sure how much Aprilia time

Simon,
What you have done so far is looking great.
You'll find lots of 8mm and 10mm 1.0mm pitch nuts and bolts used. I'm regularly turning up ones to replace the odd imperial one that's slipped in and going back to the original 14mm hex heads on 8mm bolts, we have a very experienced colleague that frowns when you take out a 13mm socket or spanner!
I agree with Colin re the Italian half shafts, I have the clunky Hardy Spicer things and don't like them much.
If you've never caught up with my web site about my Aprilia have a look at the restoration notes, although it could be a little scary!
Noel

http://www.narrywoolan.com.au/home/Lancia_Aprilia_-_1070.html

Now that's what I call a website - fantastic and a great reference source ! I am going to remove the back axle unit next winter because of a leaking nose bearing so it was useful to see the photos. Thanks for the link, I hadn't come across it before.

I remember from trips to Oz years ago that there are some wonderful Lancias like yours out there

Re drive shafts, fortunately they are in perfect condition and the first job once I got back here was to grease them properly along with the rest of the rear suspension. The only slight pain is that I am missing one of the grease nipple/nuts holding the wire hanger carriers so to grease it I have to remove the one from the other side !

So that's on my Christmas present list as well (list getting very long) !

Noel,
thank you very much for the link, I never realised the radiator and the water pump were attached to the engine, my only question is why? I know Lancia overdid the engineering, but this seems to be complication for complications sake, do we know if there were any advantages to mounting the radiator & Water pump where they are? I'm not an engineer, but off hand I can't see any, although I'd love an Aprillia complications and all.
I was interested to read the that original purchaser lived in Acton Lane, which in itself isn't a million miles away from Lancia in alperton.

Brian
8227 8)

Whilst waiting for the petrol pump, filter and braided pipe to arrive, I have been doing some nice jobs

First was to make a shelf for the boot to carry a delightful, old, leather suitcase which Juliet's father took to war ! It has a label "Captain TD ......" on the inside and he was demobbed in '47 so it is exactly the right period.

Then cleaning up the brass wheel nuts and re-marking the LH threaded ones. As you know LH threaded nuts have a notch on each of the corners of the nut but over time these have been lost by over-enthusiastic tyre-centres undoing them the wrong way. I used a small disk on the dremel to recut them. Lancia stamped the wheelstuds "s" and "d" as a reminder , but it was not always heeded (sorry, poor photo)

Finally, putting together a toolkit from various Lancia epochs (and a bit of Renault). The wheelbrace I think is Aprilia or Aurelia, the 17/19 spanner is from a Fulvia, as is the wheel nut tool. The 2 allan key spanners are 60's Lancia, maybe earlier. The toolbox is Fulvia but fits perfectly in the frame inside the boot. Finally the jack is late 60's Renault 4 but the Aprilia starting handle fits perfectly.
The grease gun is possibly Lancia.

I have a toolkit list for a 1st series Aprilia but not a second so if anyone can help - either with offers of tools or a list of what to look for I would be grateful.

I also took the carb to bits and re-assembled it but I will post that later.

ps both R4's passed their CT's (MOT) so it was a good day !

With reference to Brian's comment on Aprilia radiators, the radiator on an Aprilia has to be fixed to the engine because the dynamo that runs through the center of it and the water pump that is fixed to the bottom of it have to have their pullies kept in a constant relationship to the crank pulley on the engine. It is also very heavy!
This has its benefits, it keeps the power unit very compact and the whole engine/gearbox/radiator can be taken out of the car as one unit. See attached photo, sorry about the quality, it was taken 23 years ago.

Simon, your 'grease gun' is for oiling the front suspension on the 1st series cars. I'm not sure what system you have on your car, it should have a remote oiler, either like the Aurelia or a foot operated pedal under the dash.

Here is the 2nd series tool tav and list. The wheel brace is Aprilia, although I'm not too sure about the nasty looking spike on the handle! Do you still need the suspension oiler for the bottom spring section?
Radiators weight either 16 or 17 kg.
Noel

Thanks Ade,
I had realised the radiator was attached to the engine to keep everything in alignment, I was just questioning the reason why Lancia chose that route, but looking at your smiling youthful face ;) and the complete assembly close by, all is now clear, I didn't realise it made the engine / Radiator/Gearbox assembly that compact.

brian
8227 8)

Ade, 23 yrs ago - that's about the last time I met you so, to me, you look the same ! PGY has the foot pedal so maybe the oiler will just stay in the toolbag and look nice .... 23 years ago I could pick up an Aprilia engine and gearbox, but not with the rad attached - maybe that's why I've got backache now !

Noel, thanks for the list and diagram. I have rewritten my letter to Santa. Re the wheel brace, the spike is used to 1) remove to the hubcaps or 2) stab the next person who says that the Aprilia looks like a Beetle from the back !

Thanks for the offer of a greasing nut, I think Ron Francis is going to help me out with a few bits, including the grease nut, but if not I will drop you a line

New Wire

In order to run a new wire to the boot to supply the pump, I had to take out the seats and mats. As always this means you cannot overlook the other things that need to be done. It was done with some trepidation because the floors look to be in reasonable nick from underneath, a couple of plates but nothing drastic.

On inspection, the front floor has had a big plate set in, but has holed again in one corner, so will have to be repaired properly. However in true "TimeTeam" fashion I have uncovered it, recorded it, protected it and covered it up again and it can wait until I can buy the bits and have another 3 days to deal with it . The rear floors are remarkably good - the driver's side will need a small plate along the sill but the other side is perfect. So all cleaned up ready to protect and paint. Mr Boom would be very disappointed that there wasn't more for him and his "best-friend" to do !!

The original rubber mats are still pretty good but the rear carpets have suffered so will need to be remade

The rear seats are a dilemma, they are not perfect, but are they bad enough to re-upholster ? I think not, but it will take a while to restore them and try and get the water stains out. The labels state " .... APRILIA , 19 0TT 1948" so that gives a pretty clear indication as to when the car was built. I can't imagine the interior has been changed

Hopefully the new pump will arrive tomorrow so I can put everything back together. It is our 10th wedding anniversary in 3 weeks and I have promised we will take the Aprilia for our trip away

Simon I sent you a PM re fuel pump...

I have also just taken my seats out to get to the side panelling and trafficators etc. It is IMO a good idea to waxyol everything from those access ports. I took had a dilemma on the underside of the seats as the cloth had torn away, but with some judicious re nailing they look quite good and original. I didn't see any labels however.

Tim

PS your paint loss under the number plate does not correspond with the pivot point for the support which is under the Lancia Aprilia light???

Tim
I remember your car when Frank James had it. It was a delightful car belonging to a real gentleman. I look forward to seeing it again !

Re boot lid stay, maybe mine is lower, but the bottom part of the bracket is about 1 1/2 inches below the number plate light. The problem is exacerbated by the lead repairs to the boot lid - you would not want to drop it on your head. My old Aprilia (YRV) had and alloy boot lid which would lift off its stay with a strong breeze.

Pump and bits arrived today so there's tomorrow's job

Interior

A couple of before and afters. I spent a fair amount of time using a steam cleaner to remove the old water marks - not perfect but much better so I think I will keep the rear seats and re-upholster the fronts, door cards and replace the rear carpets and sill covers. I think these would probably have been rubber originally but the carpet lends a bit of luxury !

The floors look much better painted, just hope it's dry enough to re-assemble tomorrow

I also repainted the loom covers ,battery cover and bulkhead panel - if I take it off/apart I try and deal with it .......

If I'm lucky we can go for a drive tomorrow !

Simon,
 thank you for posting the update and photos and she's coming on well, but the last photo has me completely foxed, what am I looking at?

Brian
8227 8)

Sorry Brian
It is the Aprilia photo quiz !

Not really, I uploaded the photo in error and then didn't know how to delete it ......

What it actually shows is the area under the dash, driver's side with the foot lever that operates the suspension oiler. Not a particularly interesting photo, but I am trying to take photos of every inch of the car so if I work on something in the future and forget how it goes back together I will have a record.

Simon

My foot oiler has become just that - a foot oiler!!! Another little job (don't suppose it is that easy to overhaul) to do after the current one of replacing the interior after investigating and fixing the carrello trafficators. They now have 21st century led lighting as I can't source the 30x6mm 12v festoons. (Any ideas anyone??). It's not that I am slower than youin doing these jobs but time is taken up playing with my new toy - A Gamma Coupe!!

Tim

That steam cleaner has worked a treat!!  Tell me more...

Another thought for the seats: do you remember the bench front seat from your/my B20?  It had some rather nice period loose covers with map pockets.  Perhaps that might be an answer?

David

Simon,
Thanks for the explanation but I still can't work it out ??? always a good idea to take lots of photos as it's not the first time I've taken something off and forgotten how to put it back :-[
To delete a photo, click on the Additional options, then where the information is shown in the attach box, highlight, then click your delete button.

Brian
8227 8)

Tim
Would love to see details of the trafficator fix, I will need to do mine as well. Once I've got them in pieces I will scour the vide-greniers for bulbs
Sorry about the oiler - maybe try the steam cleaner on your loafers .... impressive machine !

David
re steamer - Bit scary at first as you disappear in clouds of vapour, but it doesn't wet the fabric too much and really shifts the stains. If you don't scrub too hard with the brush it is quite delicate

Back on the road

The bits arrived and have now been fitted. The pump in the boot fits neatly in the corner and is currently wired to run all the time. It is a solid-state low pressure pump and will self prime and has an inline filter on the tank side. It ticks quietly and you do not notice it once the engine is running.

I fitted all new 8mm braided pipe and clips leading to the original pump (which I dismantled and cleaned) , which then feeds the filter and pressure regulator.

So I now have a "new" tank filter (made from the mesh of a stainless steel colander and copper wire), inline pump filter and bowl filter so hopefully any future muck will never reach the carb.

One strange thing,  initially I was surprised how loud the pump was, the ticking could be heard across the garage and on inspection the noise appeared to come from the horn !
As you can see, my homemade filter bracket (R4 bumper iron and rad stay cut and welded) is bolted onto the horn mounting and I thought that resonance was causing the horn to sound. In fact, what was causing it was the pump feed being on the same circuit as the horn. New feed from another fuse and all fixed , and quiet.

After a number of trial runs all seems to work well - a trip down the motorway will be a real test.

I like the thread on the top of the carb.  Not seen that before.

Good luck!!

David

It's like bumping into an old university friend you shared a flat with years ago - more than 25 years in this case, and you just slip back into the old ways; the banter, the memories and the fun

Driving an Aprilia is fun and like many old Lancias, you adopt a certain style of driving. In this case you slip your shoes off, wind down the window, pull the starter lever, select first and away ....

Aprilias are neat cars, you get to know your passenger in the way you knew your flatmates, up close and personal. Great in winter because like our house in Liverpool 8, there is no heating.
I find my feet are too big to wear shoes and be able to heel & toe, similarly I always open the window so you can stick your elbow out to get more purchase on the wheel for tight corners, because you have to drive an an Aprilia with gusto. The gearbox is a delight, the steering precise and the brakes powerful but requiring a good squeeze.

50 miles along empty country lanes brings it all back !

A good test to see what needs to be done, because as well as our anniversary, Mathilda and I are going to join Lancia Club France for a jolly around the Corbières in early June. This should be entertaining because Mathilda will just have turned 7 and there is a map book to follow. I suspect that if there was an iPad version we would be fine !

your right about the elbow out of the window but i supect the climate where you are makes this somewhat less of an issue...

Simon, I agree with you discription of Aprilia driving, I too drove one recently after a gap of many years. For me it is just the way in handles in the bends, even when I was going way too fast for any given corner it just went where it was pointed. Oversteer and understeer are not words in the Aprilia vocabulary. Truly the integrale of the '30s

Took off the grill to fit a LMC badge. 5 minute job really.......

However the shutters were a bit sticky, so cleaned up, light paint and oil all the moving parts before refitting. While I was at it I made a new adjuster to tension the cable (brass bolt drilled along its length) and fitted a new stainless inner cable and clamps

Quick description of how the shutters work - radiator heats up and a wax core expands pushing out a rod which then pushes on a lever at the side of the rad. This pulls on a cable connected to the top of the shutters and thus opening them.

Simple in theory, expensive in practice

They are very effective, when fully open they provide very little restriction to air flow. The large round hole in the baffle at the bottom is for the horn.

All nice and clean now - so much for a five minute job !

After a few outings, I felt there was a little hesitancy in the pick up especially after "hard" braking and sharp cornering - often suggests low float level or sticking float valve - then, one morning she didn't start on the first turn. Quick tap on the front of the carb (above the horizontal needle valve) and all was well.

So, decided the problem may be low fuel pressure following changes. Half a turn on the pressure regulator to increase the pressure (factory set at 2 psi) and no probs since

Also changed the vertical door rubbers prior to LCF outing. It means that my daughter is less likely to fall out.  And more importantly not damage the doors !

Just have to get the family used to correct door opening procedure - close the back door first / open front door first , then it is much more difficult to accidentally initiate air brakes

Shutters working well after cleaning

Don't understand why either front or back door cannot be opened or shut independent of each other ???

OVS does it Ok....

with new seals they are quite stiff sometimes.

my dads gussy is like that because of new seals where as my seals are "older" and dont work as well new seals are bit like a bathroom plunger suction and the back doors on my dads car feel like if you were to open them without opening the front 1st you would probably snap the alloy door handle off doing it  :o

Having had a rear door open inadvertently on YRV, I would prefer not to repeat it ! Not going quickly so not too much damage ....

I am sure Colin will have a photo of an Aprilia using "air brakes", I remember seeing one somewhere, but is was not an uncommon occurrence, especially on series 1 cars with the early catches 

I recall Paul Bishop telling me a story about a trip where his passenger was asleep and leaning against a front door. When on a sharp corner the seat, which wasn't bolted down, was half way out before said passenger was retrieved !

YRV was a bit more tired than PGY, even 30 years ago, the doors did not fit as well and the pins were worn. I used YRV everyday for several years and got into the habit of closing the doors "correctly". So I still do all I can to minimise the risk especially when I have a youngster who still likes to play with everything despite requests to desist.

So, I can still open the rear doors first but prefer not to and I don't want to break those beautiful handles either

Ben has fitted a little shed clasp across his doors to more than prevent accidental opening. It wasn't something with new cars, only when they got older and weakened in chassis through corrosion and pin hinge and catch department. If the car is strong this should not be a problem even now but better safe than sorry especially when family is being transported.

Tim

We took off over a hump on the Classic Marathon in Norway and a rear door of the Appia flew open. It frightened the life out of me.

I am pleased to say that I never experienced rear doors flying open on my Aprilia, but it must have been a worry because I do remember rebuilding the curved-taper door latch pins by having them Stellite welded and then grinding back to shape.

The only photo I have of my Aprilia with doors open is below. This was at a picnic stop on the way back from southern Spain in 1967. Seems like yesterday …

Colin

I have had my rear doors fly open a few times over the past 40+ years and have the dents in the rear quarter panel to prove it! The reason has usually been that they were not shut properly. The inside handles are prone to sticking in the open position so although the door seems to be shut it isn't necessarily properly latched.
The shed latches were fitted many years ago to give my wife confidence.She landed in the road after some spirited cornering in my Morris 8 tourer when she was still young and impressionable (but fortunately flexible enough to absorb the impact!) I have never lost a passenger from the Aprilia. With the rear doors the air-brake effect blows one back in!

Great photo Colin.

I never had the doors open whilst driving my Aprilia, but I was a passenger in one when the front door sprung open!

Firstly, I must point out that I am not being paid by the Languedoc tourist board, however I thought I'd share a real jewel of a village here in the south. It's an ideal short stop if you are heading down to the Med or Northern Spain via the A75, it is about 100kms south of the Millau viaduct near Clermont l'Herault.

Villeneuvette is an "industrial village" started in the 1600's to make cloth for export in an attempt to snatch back some of the market from the English and Dutch. For me the really interesting bits were the "hydraulics" or the ground works and aqueducts which collected and channeled the water from a river and ground source up the valley. There is a short 3km walk around the area, largely in the shade.

It is a bit like Port Sunlight (Lord Lever of Unilever fame) in that the owners provided healthcare and schooling for the workers who lived in houses on the site however a strict work code was enforced!

A charming and tranquil place that even has a couple of restos ......

More info on http://pat.hernandez.pagesperso-orange.fr/villeneuvettevisite.htm (http://pat.hernandez.pagesperso-orange.fr/villeneuvettevisite.htm)

Loads of other brilliant places around there as well - maybe I should work for the tourist board

We had an excellent couple of days, sans enfant, walking, eating and drinking in the Montpeyroux area and the only problem was the shedding of a hubcap, which disappeared over the edge of a ravine never to be seen again ...... good job I bought those hubcaps on eBay last week !

Finally , how about the no entry sign - what is it really suggesting ?

Simon,
A favourite of mine although I haven't been for about 10 years is La Couvertoirade about 40kms south of Millau also off the A75, Lovely KnightsTemplar walled Village with Templar headstone in the churchyard, until the motorway was opened you used to reach it via Millau climbing out of the Valley on the D809, then the D185 that used to climb up through wildflower meadows, well worth a visit if you haven't already been.
Back in the early 1990's spent a fair bit of time canoeing the French Rivers including the Tarn.

Brian
8227 8)

I know some of those roads too - particularly going east from Clermont and Lodeve up the Herault towards the Cirque de Navacelle. I can just imagine winding down the windows of an Aprilia so as better to enjoy the sound of the barking exhaust echoing off the stone walls!

Colin

Those are original Italian drive shafts.  I rebuilt mine with needle roller bearing sets from my local bearing shop.  Cannot remember the details now, it was many years ago but I see no reason why it should not still be possible should it become necessary.  It was not difficult.

Just back from the Rallye des Corbieres in S of France, organised by Lancia Club France and it was an excellent do !

This was Mathilda's first proper Lancia outing and she was chief navigator because my wife was in the UK for the weekend. I strapped her onto the front seat using webbing so if we did have any inadvertent door opening, I wouldn't deposit our only child on the tarmac !

She is 7 and coped ably with roadbook, indicators and windscreen wiper duties

The turnout was good with a lovely selection of Fulvias - 3 Zagatos (all with bumpers removed) several coupés including a Fanalone, 4 or 5 Flavia/2000's a couple of Betas (very nice 1300 sedan) Deltas, new and old , Thesis , (348 Ferrari), a delightful Appia Convertible and Mike Jennings in a modern non-Lancia - sorry Mike !

As you would expect in France the food was excellent and the visits to the Cathar castles were a highlight. We scaled the giddy heights of Chateau de Puilaurens and then the following day, shouted in faux French voices from the top of the Python-esque Tour d'Arques - "Ze Holy Grail - vee alreddy av won". Interestingly , all our French friends know these sketches as well as we do....

The Rallye ended at the wonderful wine domaine of "La Baronne" - a completely different scale to our own efforts ! The owner who is a member of LCF, prepared a fantastic feast to finish the Rallye, an enormous paella that took 4 people to carry, washed down with a lovely vermentino/granache blanc  and their classic Corbières reds.

Great weekend !

PS Aprilia did 400kms without missing a beat, just used a drop of water on the steep climb to Puilaurens in 30 + degree heat

Looked like a lot of fun.
OVS is off tomorrow for her inaugural Sliding Pillar Rally. 145 miles to the starting point. Should be OK. Fingers crossed we dont get blown away with this lovely weather...Finally the clock is working ;D

Tim
I spoke to Paul this evening who said he will see you there ! Hope OVS behaves - bonne route
 

Merci bien!!

Well you will have seen OVS pictured on the SPR elsewhere on the forum, and she ran faultlessly if you ignore a broken window winder (anyone got a spare - preferable the articulated sort??), the Speedo/ODOmeter breaking (luckily I could translate the Tulips onto some handy ordanance survey maps), and the Dynamo deciding it did not like on of the brushes (so stopped charging). They say things happen in 3's.

Great time, and on the way home drove through a flooded road without missing a beat.

Been a bit pre-occupied with other things recently so a couple of trips out and little else. Slight problem last time in that the original petrol pump had a major leak and so bypassed it, leaving just the new electric one. I wonder if the pressure coming from the new pump is too great for the original seals.

New carpets have arrived as well, so looking forward to fitting those in the next few days and will then post photos

Hope all of your cars are behaving with the constant deluge !

At last, some Aprilia time - I saw from my last update that I was going to fit the new carpets in the 'next few days' well nearly 3 months later I have done so .......

As we know, none of this is straight forward because there are a lot of things to do first. The aluminium trim holding down the sill rubbers needed renovating, as did the door spigot covers and the rubber section , then the floors needed rubbing down and painting etc etc etc.

The carpets look really good and fit well. I have kept the original rubber mats at the front, but have made carpets to go over the top to protect them

Next is a retrim for the front seats and door cards. I am going to keep the rear seats as they are and just do the fronts - I cannot bring myself to destroy the original rear covers, they are just a 'bit tired'. I will buy some extra material in case I change my mind.

very neat, who made the carpets. the cut out around the door pin plate is just right.?
My carpets and seats are too good to want to replace them but living with the delicate interieur, wayward springs in the front seats and smusty smell of all those years makes the prospect of everything new rather attractive. the lower trims in the bottom of the doors are rotted though and need replacing.Same colour approximately as your back seat. What material is it?

My carpets were made by Brian Cates (member of LMC) using the original scraps I sent to him ! It took a little time to fit the new ones because he replicated perfectly the bits I sent him, but the bits were distorted with age so I had to make a couple of nips and tucks to get them right. I found some nice slotted and domed stainless self-tappers with cup washers to complete the look.

Regards the material, I am awaiting samples from Brian before we embark on the door cards and front seats, because like you, I am reluctant to replace the original backseats when they are still so good !

I am going to post progress as I go, so please ask for additional pictures/points if I don't cover it in enough detail

All the door panels removed and dismantled - what a mess !

I dismantled everything so I can work out how to remake the frames, central cards, bottom panel and pockets. The frames are made of 1cm thick wood which have a curved profile, are biscuit jointed at the corners and routed on the back so the central card fits flush. These are going to be difficult to reproduce, but I should be able to do it with a bit of time.

The front pockets are a work of art - separate silk lined "purse" set into a hole on the door card. The shape of the pocket is formed by a rubber section attached to the back panel and an elasticated cord keeping the shape of the pocket lip

The door card itself is given that extra luxury look and feel by the addition of nearly 1/2" of felt under the fabric.

All very time consuming and expensive !

I am not sure if the bottom of the door panels were originally carpeted because there is nothing original here. What is definite is that there was a separate panel at the bottom of the door because the cloth on the central panel stopped above the bottom edge.

Can anyone confirm whether or not the bottom of the door was carpet/cloth/vinyl etc ?

After a day's fiddling I have made the first of the panels - the rest will be much easier now I have all the methods in place !

For the straight sides of the frame I made up a 47x4 mm moulding with rounded edges to which I glued a 5x20mm baton to give the rebate and the corners were reinforced with 5mm ply

The curved side was made of 2 pieces of molding glued side by side to a piece of ply and then filled. The shape was cut and then the piece was routed to give the rebate

Once glued together it is all quite strong,  not Mathilda-proof, but not bad .The back board is cut from 5mm ply with a 7 mm gap when screwed into the frame.

If anyone wants a template for the door panels, now would be a good time to ask !!

Lovely Job Simon ;D

Brian
8227 8)

My first series has original door cards, made of c.5mm. "composition"  (sort of semi hardboard or compressed fibreboard) covered with leather (UK spec.) with little wooden pads to fill out the rounded bits.  The bottoms have fallen off where the leather was stitched at the bottom and the composition has torn along the dotted line but the bottom was indeed carpet.   It looks to me as if your door panels may have been a luxury non standard bit of coach building?  Very nice anyway!

Very very nice and the method may well cross over to the Gussie when I get round to that !!!!

An excellent job.

                           Andy

Very nice job! templates would be usefull if you have any spare as all my panels are shot!

James, once I have finished all 4 I will make up some paper templates and cross sections and will send you a set. if you send me an email with your address I will post them to you

pm sent, thanks alot  :)

Just to add to this. A photo has just been sent to me of an early S1 Aprilia undergoing work on the instruments, which happens to show the door trim – see below. This is a UK spec car with original leather trim, which was redone about twenty years ago and it shows the carpet section at the base of the door. For comparison there is also a photo of an early Italian spec car restored presumably to its original spec.

Colin

And OVS which I believe to be original.

Tim

Thanks everyone - any chance of a close up of the carpeted bit ? It is the bottom edge finish I am especially interested in.

Not too cheeky I hope ....

The best I can do is simply enlarge the detail on the original photos - see below. Alas, the bottom of the trims on my Aprilia, which I parted company with in 1969, were really shabby.

Colin

Perfect, thank you !

The leather door trim looks just like mine (used to!).  My seats are not pleated though.

...nor are the door panels.  Not strictly relevant here but here is ORIGINAL UK trim for an early Aprilia.  The seats have been recovered but are an exact copy of the original.

Thank you - it looks like a carpeted section at the bottom of the door was pretty standard. All the photos have helped me reconstruct the bottom section of the panel, because mine was pretty shot and difficult to make a pattern.

Slightly off track, David, did you fit the seat belts?? If so, or if details may be made available, how do the top and bottom fixings tie in with the door latches ???

It would be a great help to know, I would like to do something for both the Gussie and the Appia.

                           Andy

I did and they simply bolt to the back of the catch pins.  I am not sure where I got them, they may be 2CV but I am sure you will find something in a recycling yard.  I did make some new catch pins to replace old worn ones and made a slightly longer thread.  It would look neater, I suppose, to bolt the reels to the inside of the foot-well and then you could replace the shiny cover (now, why didn't I think of that before?).  The upper point is a bit high and one day I may make a plate to bolt to the upper mounting to make the run a bit more comfortable.  Since Boot's crash, I have fitted belts in all my cars.  Not had to test them yet, thank goodness.

I agree, that is the original pattern Series 1 Alperton upholstery and door cards.

However, a regrettable admission to make here. When I removed the original door cards, they were extremely shabby and the ply had completely delaminated. I took them to an upholsterer and said "replace the card and re-cover the card to the same pattern, but that mothy bit of carpet looks like it was glued on when the card rotted badly, do not replicate that". He did a lovely job and no carpet.

Ahem ! I now realise how wrong I was  .....
Nick

Have finally finished the door cards. It has taken a surprising amount of time because I had little to work with and every door is slightly different - I know some are on the left and some are on the right and some are back and some front, but let's not nit-pick !!!! - however, I would have expected one side to be the mirror of the other !

The overall shape is very similar but the positioning of the door handles and window winders are a few mm different between either side of the car

So just hoping we can find some suitable fabric now .......

Had a sneaky eBay session the other night and bought some nice, new, shiny bits .....

And so, whilst waiting for glue to dry, I have begun to fit them. They are non-original Aprilia bits , but are replacing tired and worn out non-original Aprilia bits !

I have been looking out for suitable replacement front side/indicators and could find very little that looked acceptable and to be had at a sensible price, so I have reverted to 50's/60's Lucas glass units. It means I can use the existing holes and wiring ,and then if I find something better in the future I have lost nothing - and all for less than £20 each
I have also removed the horrible "dalek-like" repeaters on the corner of the wings. I prefer to see the holes ! They can wait until I repaint the front wings over the winter. To that end, I have bought some touch up paint and will now see if the Spectro got the colour right - fingers crossed

Next was a door mirror which I hope will allow me to peer into the huge blind-spot that all Aprilia drivers learn to live with. Especially worrying on French autoroutes that one occasionally ventures onto. The mirrors are lovely (have bought one for the driver's side as well), delicate things, angled nicely and not too sticky-outy.

Lastly, a rearview mirror to replace the Lancia 2000 mirror we fitted in 1979 ! I would love one of the gorgeous oval mirrors but they are frighteningly expensive when you see them on 'Subito'

She looks like a new car !

ps I now have a 2000 rearview mirror and 2 uncracked, pointy lenses for sale for little money, or if unwanted I will list them on Subito for a hugely inflated and distorted price ...

Better photo of new side light !

whats the interior mirror off? looks good

The mirror comes from a big Healey. The only thing I am going to change is the adjusting screw. I will swap it for a slotted screw instead of the Phillips one

Looks nice.
if its any consolation , the only thing you see in the oval rearview mirror are the rear passengers. The chances of a direct view through the rear window is about the same as the sun at dawn above the alter stone at stonehenge.

 I find that
http://www.vintagecarparts.co.uk/
have an excellent supply of things like mirrors for not too horrifying prices.     I appreciate your point about the repeaters (?2CV) but prefer to have some such in view of the doziness of many modern drivers (particularly OLD ones)   I have fitted some quite neat and inoffensive LED ones I found in my local trailer shop to the lambdas.  After all, flashing indicators are non standard anyway.

After a trip back to the UK , I've had a bit more "garage-time" to get on with the interior. First up was redressing the flat pegs that fix the top edge of the door panels in place. There were several missing so I remade them from sheet steel and used a jogglar to get the correct offset. Coat of paint and they await refitting.

I have dismantled the driver's seat prior to sending away for re-upholstering. I was sure it was broken and lo and behold, the backrest was badly twisted and had snapped in several places. It had also been rewelded at some point, but poorly, leaving it misaligned.
It is not surprising that the frame was broken because my stepfather is no lightweight and nor am I, and as you can see the frame most definitely is lightweight !
Easiest thing to do was to cut the bottom off and straighten it all before welding back together. I used 8mm threaded rod inside the tubes to strengthen the joints.

The original upholstery was beautifully done, high class work and materials. Lots of horse hair and wool felt all held in place with yards of twine.
One nice detail was how the bottom frame rail was covered, fabric sewn to a card strip before being riveted to the frame. Very time consuming and expensive

The only problem is that the Aprilia is now off the road until I can get the seats back in the car, but winter and is coming so not so much of an issue !

Now that I can't drive the Aprilia whilst waiting for the front seats to be upholstered , I plan to take a few other bits to pieces and repaint/repair them

Today I removed the running board in order to clean it up before painting. I have done a spectro on the colour and have found "a perfect" match so I thought it best to start on the least obvious piece. The colour looks very good on a sample and some touching up, so worth a punt !

Removing the aluminium ribs was a delicate job because the bolts are tiny. Indeed some were already broken and the rib was held on by a loop of wire

The challenge now is to find/remake these bolts. They slide in a narrow groove on the back of the rib, entering via a slight widening in the middle

If anyone has already done this job and has any of said sliding bolts, I would appreciate a few, or if you know where I can get some please let me know. Approx sizes are M2 threads with 9x4.5 flat bar tops and about 8-10 mm long, nut is 5mm socket

Fortunately no hidden nasties behind the running board !!!

Fiddly little job, this one ! Trafficators have never worked for as long as I can remember .....

Firstly removed the interior light and side panel, then the top nut for the trafficator is behind the bulb for the interior light - the int. light is part of the trafficator - and the bottom screw is accessible from the outside once the arm is raised.

3 wires to disconnect - top is for the int. light, the middle for the solenoid and bulb (from indicator switch) and the bottom one for the dash return to light the warning lamp

The problem with the unit appeared to be that the insulation on all 3 internal wire had perished and the only way to replace them is by taking the arm off and drilling out the rivets holding the lens and terminal in place, re-thread and solder new wires, clean and re-assemble it all - easy as that !

After a couple of hours fiddle, all working again, a new rubber gasket cut from an old inner tube and ready to fit. Not sure yet quite how I am going to make them work in tandem with the flashing indicators, but I am sure I can fashion something !

Now for the other side ......

Simon,
This is the circuit diagram that shows how the trafficators and flashers are wired in my car. There is no warning lamp, hence I fitted the buzzer. Hope it helps a bit.
Noel

Simon

You were brave. My trafficators worked ie came out and in but the bulb never lit up. The carello assembly is so frail I decided not to try to disassemble but managed to thread some very thin ptfe insulated wire (from Maplin) through the top and fish through to connect to some led replacements I made up because I could not locate those thin (6mm?) long (30mm) festoons in 12v.

Tim

Noel
Thanks for the diagram, have ordered some relays !

Tim
You are correct the units are delicate, but unfortunately all the wires were cream-crackered so I had no choice !

This evening's little trial was getting the switch for the interior lights to work - I knew the wiring was OK because they flickered when you pressed the switch but didn't stay on

It isn't evident from the picture, but the small pulley has a square block inside it that is rotated by the hook on the upper contact. The block is half brass and half bakelite, so when the brass side is lined up across the contact, it is on - etc !

It needed the contacts cleaning and re-profiling before it would work - touch of oil and all is well

I spoke to one Aprilia owner who drove his restored car for one year with just the semaphore arms in operation  -  no flashing indicators. After 12 months, he told me, "it was b****** dangerous  -  no current driver ever looks for trafficators : right-turns were suicide".

I fettled my trafficators, installed them disabled, and just completed the wiring for the interior lights  -  which work a treat. The semaphores look fine, just do not operate.
Nick

Trouble with semaphores is that they do not return if you are going at any sort of speed at all and so are only of any use in town.   Mine work from the original switch but I have a separate switch for the flashing lights.

Mine were wired to operate from the original switch which operated the flashers with a cunning circuit using 2 lucas flasher relays.

Re trafficators, I plan to try them in tandem as per Noel's diagram (and probably Tim's car as well) and if I suffer David's  problem then I can revert to the separate switch ! Forewarned is forearmed as they say ....

Having removed the side panel to access the trafficators it became apparent that the side panel was not entirely well so I need to remake it in the same ply as the door panels.

As always, some nice details which I need to reproduce - chamfered edges and covered cut outs for the door pins etc. As before, if anyone wants a template, let me know

With the trafficators will you have them wave in sync for hazards :)

David

Nobody knew what my next move was on the motorway at above 60mph with them flapping around like dogs ears. Below 50 they would latch on cancelling but above as David said the aerodynamic behaviour of the arm slowed the drop back so no latching....

Tim

Doing a trial paint-run on one running board - I want to see if I can get a good colour match and finish before embarking on the wings.

A friend is doing the fancy stuff, leaving me with some of the basic prep and putting back. So far we have the first one in primer ready for colour on Wednesday

Have also made the first batch of fixing bolts for the running board trim. I had no joy finding something ready made , so I bought some 2mm brass angle (couldn't find suitable flat) and M2 threaded brass rod and with the help of my Dremel, cut strips, drilled and soldered short lengths of threaded rod into it. Each one had to be bevelled before it would slide in the trim.

The bolts are tiny so taken a while to make especially with size 10 fingers ....

looking good  ;)

Thanks James, today "created" a spray booth - ie a third of the garage (including the ceiling) partitioned off with heavy plastic sheeting  .... no baking option unless I buy a bigger AGA

Have also embarked on the process of importing PGY into France. Part of the first step involved speaking to DVLA about date of manufacture (currently "L" reg) During the conversation they said that it is official , you no longer need an MOT on a pre-1960 car. Fortunately they have PGY logged as a 1949 build (which is incorrect, she is 1947 according to the production dates given by Noel and Ade, hence the discussion)

I knew it was in the offing. So how do you now get a tax disc ? Can you apply for it by post without MOT ? Still need proof of insurance ? Be interested to hear !

To answer my own question - you just apply via the DVLA website and tick a box to say you are exempt from MOT, they electronically check the insurance and exemption et voila !

I wish form filling was as easy as that here.

Pictures of door lock for Mic along with the fixing pin in place - a bent piece of wire which fits into a slot holding the barrel in place - just remove and tap the lock out

Trial fitting of aluminium strips on the running board. Very happy with the colour so will start with the wings in January

##hot off the press##

Postman just arrived with my certificate of manufacture from Lancia France giving the correct year of manufacture as 1947 - early Christmas present !!!

(I supplied the production figures as given by Noel and Ade and I am sure they helped - thanks again)

re the lock I seem to remember that there was a huge nut holding my lock in place. v akward to do up as not much space in the door frame??

Tim

Have you noticed there is a complete list of chassis numbers on the Viva-Lancia web site for all models from 1908 to 1975:http://www.viva-lancia.com/specials/cd/vin.php

Noel

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and we hope to catch up with some of you next year

New jobs for the New Year, using nice new Christmas pressies (3/8" Facom ratchet from Juliet !)

Since I'm going to paint the wings and need to remove them, thought I'd do a couple of other jobs at the same time !

PGY is known to have had a hefty bump at some time in her life - almost certainly before she came to the UK in 1973. One front wing is apparently first series along with an earlier sliding pillar unit. On the same side there is evidence of a repair to the axle mounting as well. I will get a better look at it all once the wings are off, but we are going to do the repairs and some prep before removing them so they are held rigid whilst we redress the arches and fill in the holes

Having unbolted the front bumper it is clear that much of this has also been repaired, either at the same time or on another sunny day in Bolzano .... Mind you, Aprilia bumpers and irons are not renowned for their inherent strength, more a pretty afterthought !

All has been disassembled, further repaired and painted ready to go back on once the wings are done

Have also decided to remove the rad and other ancillaries so as to check over, clean and paint them all since they've not been looked at for a few years. The area in front of the rad is also a bit of a mess !

Have been unable to source the Wurth disks here in France, they have different ones listed and then you have to be a registered professional to be able to buy them plus Wurth UK will not post to France ! So someone introduced me to a 3M system which is very effective and available here or via eBay

New Year's resolutions:

French Reg
Min 2 LMC/LCF tours or rallies
New stablemate


 

Happy New Year!!

Target event or just giving it the time it takes?

David

David
Planning to do the Rallye des Corbieres in early May and then something around the Fulvia 50th in September (vendanges permitting)

I really do hope I will have finished everything before Easter though !

ps the potential stablemate had already been sold !

Do tell???

Re stablemate, I am still hankering after a vineyard car and there was an Ardea pickup advertised in Italy (also identified on the Forum) but unfortunately it was sold before I had a chance to look at it !

Some progress this week. Started cleaning up the bits I removed at the weekend.

The dynamo was functioning well, even so I thought it wise to strip and check it whilst it was accessible. The brushes are perfect and the open ball bearings just need a clean and re-grease.

Couple of questions - what should be painted and what should be polished ?

The fan blades I think should be painted. The castings do not seem good enough to leave, whereas the nose plate of the dynamo is nicely finished so it should be clean. The brushes-cover should be painted, but the bit in between ?? I haven't any period photos to be definite.  Problem is that everything had been painted over the years. However, if you clean through the layers you can get an idea what was original , but it isn't always evident !

Secondly, I have found a nice period coil which would look much nicer than the modern (and efficient !) Bosch coil but how can you check it is in good nick or do I just paint the modern one black and live with it ?

Finally, the horn is a little gem ! Easier to clean and paint if in bits. Would be nice to find a complete Marelli tag for it but where would you find one?

So many questions, so little time !

Waterpump next .....

My fan was painted black and was quite dangerous as you could not see it in the work shop when the engine was running. I painted white tips on it for safety but it looked quite nice!

Thanks Tim
I have painted the fan black and the tips of my fingers white so I don't trap them in the fan
S

Well you should see the red stubs then!! >:(

I left my fan like yours (unpainted), lethal but painting the tips doesn't make much difference;you just have to keep well away when it's running, finger shredding is quickly done...

I was mine polished, with very good result, see pics:

That's the problem with practicality and concours tension. Nice polished but driving car in all weather (not for concours of course) will make it corrode again...

I have tried to keep all the bits as per factory so for the fan, I decided it needed to be "Amy Winehouse" that is back to black !

The dynamo has a black cover with the body and nose left as cleaned metal, but have used what is a French panacea - Rustol - they use it for everything ! It is a kind of rustproofing varnish and is used for metal, wood etc.
I don't recall seeing it in the UK ..... it is not shiny and retains the freshly cleaned look. The only down side is the time it takes to dry

The water pump is shown in bits, waiting for a new drain tap and gasket paper. From the photo you can see 2 disks with grooves. These connect the impeller shaft to the pulley and are nearly always worn (the upper disk) and rounded, so I welded up the damaged part of the disk and recut the groove - let's hope it works. Fiddly little thing which has LH threaded nut holding on the pulley - very Lancia

Finished running board with polished strips

Have been working on the front wings today so will post later

I am very fortunate to have a basically sound car where generally there have not been too many horrors when you take things to pieces. So it was with some trepidation that we embarked on the front wings, especially in the knowledge that she has had a bump at some time in her past.

On inspection, there has been quite a lot of repair work on the inner wheel arch with a fair number of spot welds where rods have been attached to assist in pulling the damaged panel out. There is still some distortion , but since there is no abnormal tyre wear or wheel shimmy, I am going to leave well alone - this damage was done at least 40 years ago so I suspect it would have reared its ugly head by now ....

We have done most of the fettling with the wings on the car. (I say "we" but my friend "Dog" is our local bodywork expert, so I do what he tells me !!) This has mainly involved making penny-disks to weld up the nasty indicator-repeater holes and there was a bit of arch-flaring due to a couple of cracks (probably minor dings) so I jacked up the leading edge to get back the original line before rewelding the flange. Dog then spent some time redressing the wings with a hammer and dolly to reduce the filler load. It looked as if someone had done a Cozy Powell tribute on the wings !

The strengthening boxes at the back of the wings are still there , but one side needed a repair before painting.

Dog did a quick skim of filler over the wings and everything is lovely again !

With the wings off everything is easy to get at so a few hours sanding (would have been quicker but my air-sander kept icing up !) , and it is ready to paint. Inner and under wheel arches have had their first coat of paint and we are hoping to get the primer on the top this Friday ...

Lovely, looks as someone shot it with a shot gun! Quite liking the colour too...excellent!

P

Coil should produce a spark which can jump a centimetre or two if you flick across the terminals.  I presume it is 6V?  You can buy spark testing strobes as well, designed to go inline with the plug leads and a goodly spark in one of them is a good sign.   Of course you can always see if it will knock you off your feet.

Thanks David - what do you mean by "flick across the terminals" (it is 12v - not that it makes a difference I suspect) ? I would rather try that than the "knock you off your feet" method

Re front wings, they are now in 2 pack primer with a light contrast coat and are starting to look very nice .... colour planned for next week.

Slight conundrum with the suspension units, I knew they were different;  the RHS being the later type and the LHS being the earlier one.

According to the 2nd series instruction book (thanks Tim) the later type started at chassis 438-13714 so corresponds with my car, it also has the foot pump oiler. However the bump was on the RHS so this is the one I would have expected to have been replaced with a non-standard, but it is the other side which is non standard. Further confusion is that the early unit on the LHS appears to have an adjuster on the shock absorber, which I didn't think was an option on the early units. More homework ......

like the spray booth. Now you see it now you dont :D

Just wondering what the hole in the wheel arch is for? And is it a 2nd series thing?
Noel

I don't know but I had a modified cam breather with a hose that I fed a big breather (to air) pipe to minimise engine bay fumes.

I suspect it was a general vent that worked at speed to clear the engine bay from fumes when the engine is working hard.

Tim

There is one on the other side as well. I suspect they were put there to improve the engine bay ventilation because I don't get any fumes in the car even on off-throttle descents

Just connect across the terminals of the coil with a battery and make and break the connection quickly by flicking the positive wire across its terminal - basically what the points do.  You will need to earth the negative side to whatever you are using to test the spark - a plug would do but Halfords make a little adjustable gap device for a few quid or you can set up a couple of nails!
I fitted a couple of modern oil seals to my water pump (standard sizes) instead of the old compressed felt,  very easy, they just went straight in and so far there are no leaks..

Father Christmas has just been and left some lovely "new" bits and bobs !

Security should be better now with the new bootlock and key.

A couple of bits are going to need some work - it would take Bill Lewis or Chugga 5 mins to sort out the petrol cap cover but I suspect it will take me longer .....

The jack and folding stock are a luxury, but what the heck, Juliet has been spending at Boden !

Thanks David for the advice re coil and I think I will rebuild my spare water pump with new bearings and modern seals - great idea, ta

The filler cap was more delicate than I first thought so took a while to sort. A bit of filler to smooth over the welds, a coat of paint and it will look nice !

The T piece for the waterpump tap was split and the rest was seized, requiring some delicate disassembling. Very different to  Aurelia wheel bearings .....
New gaskets and a coat of paint for the new bits and the pump will be ready to refit

Topcoat planned for wings and running board this week

In between trips to Scotland and elsewhere, some progress done.

The wings, binnacles and running boards are BEAUTIFUL ! The colour is perfect, very happy bunny !

The only problem was that the smooth (therefore invisible) stonechip reacted badly with the underbody paint so I have had to take it all back to bare metal underneath one of the wings. But no damage to topcoat and nothing major

The petrol cap cover looks better painted up as do the diff cover and gearbox filler cover. In answer to a question about the folding stock, I have shown it unfolded with the jack

Finally, the area under the rad has been stripped and painted ready for it all to be reassembled. It isn't perfect but can wait until the engine comes out to do it properly .....

Bit more prep and painting of front suspension before I can put it all back together

Wings repainted on the underside - real pain having to strip them again, but very nice and ready for final painting

Simon, the shiny bits are looking good, but you could do with the proper union where the brake pipe passes through the side of the engine bay, a lot safer too as the pipe can't rub on the sides of the hole. See items 38-46020 38-46026 38-46022 and 38-42024 in Tav 27a below.  Ade.

Thanks Ade, very interesting !

I have always thought the copper pipe across the engine bay was a bit "un-Lancia" !   I had put it down to post-war economy and scarcity of copper, taking the direct route and saving materials  ...

I have never seen the unions on any of my Aprilias - If any one has the correct bits I would be interested because the flying copper pipe does offend !

The part actually bolts to the body, leaving a threaded union on either side, but you also need the domed nut for the inside pipe, then the flexible pipe attaches on the outside. Does that make sense?

Definitely ! - it would also explain the dodgy welding holding on the brackets for the flexibles ......

I wonder if the replacement parts were obsolete for a while so people carried out some mods to keep them going ..... interesting

Just had another look at the parts book and it seems that from chassis 438-12787 the layout was different and did away with the transfer union. (TAV. 33 bis if interested) However there should be a grommet to protect the pipe going through the wheelarch

That would cover my car, but still doesn't explain the dodgy welding and flying copper tube !

I'm sure one of the Forum members who own an Aprilia can take a photo for us, the bit that sticks out in the wheel arch is particularily nice and well made, very Lancia.

I've not got the later parts book, so a scan would be interesting.

Photo of the later braking system - also shows the "pigs tail" at the back, presumably to reduce risk of fracture (hope quality is OK - photo of parts book available in pdf)

Is part 6 refered to as a grommet?  Very much a retrograde step from the series 1.

Part 6 is "Guarnizione per passaggio tubi comando freni idraulici sul fianco anteriore" !        A grommet ?

The later pipework is not as aesthetic as the earlier setup.  Damned accountants ..... but there is one less joint to leak - maybe they had a point

Bit of prep today before repairing a small ding at the side of the grill. Meant I had to remove the bonnet catch on this side so that has been cleaned and painted.

Inner wheel arches and scuttle repair to be painted tomorrow

Suspension on RHS has been degreased, rubbed down and painted as best I can without taking it all to bits (tempted as I was ....)
New oil resistant hose and clip to the shock absorber.
Once the paint is dry I can top up the bottom suspension units because it easier with it all in bits !

Coat of High temp black paint on the drums and ready to put back together this side

That would be 'Gasket for pipe passing control hydraulic brakes on the front side'

Beautiful day today - with NO wind, so we painted the wings outside.

Finished off a couple of other repairs as well, the scuttle and a flaw on the body at the back of the wheel arch. They just need a final polish.  Hope to start putting her back together next week.

Leather samples arrived from Connolly's today, so have made the decision re interior. More next week, just need to get the seats to Brian Cates in Bournemouth - anyone driving back that way in the next couple of weeks ?????

It's all right for some.  Paint would freeze before contact up here!!

Looking more like a car again - and started first time. the joys of electric fuel pumps.

If I haven't used the Aprilia for a while I try and turn the engine over for a few seconds before turning on the ignition, just to circulate a bit of oil. You can actually register oil pressure quite quickly without starting the engine.

The only problem is that the generator warning light is not going out so I need to check the wiring, brushes etc.
The old wires are quite brittle so I may end up rewiring the generating circuit - we'll see

Wings fit very nicely and now they are on we can do the final flatting and polishing

ps the coloured tape on the wheels is to stop the hubcaps chattering !

Looking nice Simon!

I will hope that the Generator is just brushes (it was on mine - slightly too thick for the slides so one always "stuck") although knowing how you have proceeded with this project, you will have rewired by now!!

Tim

Yes it was the brushes. As you know, it is an easy job on the Aprilia - comfy chair in front of the rad, cup of tea at the side and 10 mins later all working. It appears they were a bit sticky in the sliders so a smear of coppaslip on the sides , et Voila !

warning on copperslip that it can cake up and cause further problems. If the brushes are free to move then the natural carbon dust should "lubricate".

Thanks Tim - it was the lightest of smears, barely a diaphanous hint, micronically thin ..... but point taken !!!

Wings polished up and very shiny - now starting on the back. I have removed the rear wings so Dog can attack them whilst I'm away on hols

Nasty repair to the rear of the sill which I will have to tidy up or replace when I get back, otherwise all seems OK

Not much done whilst we were away - Dog has children as well and they are as demanding as our little delight !

Back on it this weekend and wings stripped and small repairs done, including replacing an old repair which had flattened the channel and been crudely welded up. Small section made up and welded flush ......

Nice little job to finish off the filler cap cover. In order to renew the hinge pin I knocked off the hinge block attached to the floorpan - interesting how the block has an angled cut , drilled out half the hinge pin, tapped the hole and made a short threaded bolt to hold the cap in place. Looks nice along with the new diff cover plate which I bought recently as well

Wings now have a skim of filler and hopefully I can get them back on next week

Seats safely delivered to trimmer in UK along with hides, so hopefully they will also be started this week.

Grotty jobs at the moment, stripping and repainting the floorpan and sills. Very dirty and oily, but at least it has helped protect most of the floors. I know that the front floors need to be replaced and have bought the panels, but by way of investigation I am cleaning up the rest to see if I need any other bits. I am doing the old "Time-Team" trick of recording what I find then protecting and covering it up for a later date !

Generally the floors and sills are very good, a couple of the old 'coverall' plates need to be removed and replaced by smaller fitted ones and the sills are a bit dented, but not rusty .  I could skim them with filler to neaten them up but I think I prefer a few wrinkles and original weld lines !

When I was a 14 year old I used to do jobs like this to earn 50p an hour, but try finding a "youth" nowadays who is interested ......

Now moved over to the other sill and cut out the nasty repair at the back. The jack mounting was a bit tatty. I found a large washer and drilled it out to take the jacking plug before welding it in place.Bit more tidying and rustproofing before making up the outer sill. The diagonal sill membrane is still there as well !

The jack mounting plug is threaded (same size as a Fulvia wheel bolt !) - but why ? For jigging repairs ?

Household white gloss?

David

Don't be rude - I'm saving that for the doors !
S

Repair finished, ready for household white gloss (it is actually a light grey primer that contains anti-rusting agents ) !!

A fiddly little patch that took an age to make and fit, Chugga would have replaced the whole sill in the same time it took me !

Even jacked it up on the new mount and all OK ...... once painted I can fill it all with waxoil. Wheel arch rubbed down and ready so just leaves the floor to be cleaned and painted. Will need to remove the exhaust and heat shield first otherwise skinned knuckles

I know that you are all suffering in the UK, so just a reminder of what half decent weather looks like - only joking, sorry !!

Wings primed today and topcoat expected Tuesday, then I can put it all back together. Rest of the undertray stripped and painted. Both front floorpans will need to be changed, but that is planned for next winter. Some time ago they have had repair panels set in above the tatty bits , so I will need to remove it all and start again. But no problem for our MOT here. Plan to seal it up so it doesn't get any worse ....

Finally a welcome to the latest addition to the family - a Renault 60 tractor dating from 1973. I had a slightly hairy trip back yesterday because it hasn't been used for 20 years, the brakes don't work and it was all down (a steep) hill from the old owner's vineyard to here. So put it in a low gear and don't touch the clutch !

Great to see....lovely that you've got the time, talent and space to get things done.........not sure about one of Louis's lesser offerings.....;)


P

What I want is Simon's book of excuses the number of projects he hauls home.

Looking good, sitting here in 23 degrees ::) is that overspray on the dog ;) ;)                      









Er 23 degrees actually in the lounge :D :D

I would love to find a tractor like that here but each time I have tried to buy one, the price has put me off. Lucky you and it will last forever.
Chris

Dunno Chris...seem reasonably priced to me....:)

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P

Some more anal-retentive, Saturday morning, fiddly jobs  - creating the little telltale lenses for the front headlamps.

The chrome strip along the top of the headlamp binnacle has an oval (ish) hole in it. The idea being that there is a opaque, red lens in there that glows when the headlights are on, thus you can see that the lights are on without getting out of the car. Pretty useless I know, because if it is dark you can see they are on and if it is daylight you can see neither the cast of the headlight nor the telltale !

Anyway, mine were missing so I bought some 5mm thick red perspex/acetate and cut and ground them away with a dremel. Blob of glue et voila !

I had tried to buy some originals from Italy but after several emails and calls that went unanswered, I gave up. Anyway, they have cost less than the postage would have cost ......

the headlamp telltales are not useless and much smarter than you realise.
they glow only if you leave your side lights on (avoid flat battery) or withfull beam but not with the normal (dipped) driving lights.So you don't forget to dip your lights after using full beam....very clever and simple.

Thanks William, I will see how they work when it all goes back together - hopefully this week ....

The wings were painted today and have come up really well, the "pop-up" spray booth once again in action. Tomorrow I hope to find a few minutes to fit them so they can have final polish on Thursday.

Topcoat on the sill repair and floorpan painted in satin black so getting there slowly (poor photo of the sill, not sure how to use the camera on my wife's iPhone, should either stick to the point-and-press or get our 7 year old to take them)

Have seen photos of the seats which have been re-upholstered and they they look fab ! Should be with me by mid next week ......

Wings fitted, just waiting to find time to fit the running boards, lights and bumpers then it's just the interior ....

Gave the rest of the car a polish - and SHE LOOKS FAB !

I doff my hat to you, your skills and efforts on the gorgeous little Lancia we see before us.

Well done

P

Thanks Parisien, there are some fabulous restorations going on out there, my "skills" are very amateur by comparison !

Last few days have seen some progress, the back end is back together, bumper on lights fitted etc etc. As part of it (and to get the trafficators working) I have replaced most of the wiring and , sorry purists, I have earthed everything back to a central point. You can see an earthing bolt with the spades bolted on just above the black box. The paint in the boot is the only truly original paint on the car so I am keeping as is .....

I have also replaced the nasty modern plastic connector block with the original bakalite one. All the terminals were cleaned up with the dremel and then I ran a round file through the holes to clean up the brass contact surface. Because there are far more wires than original, I used some thin wall wire (correct rating) but I have not been able to find any woven sheaf to make it look like the original.
I found some in the states but it was prohibitively expensive - they use it on Harley rebuilds.

The bulb holder for the central rear light is a delight as usual !

I have wired the "Lancia Aprilia" to come on with the brakes and the central one comes on with the sides

Thursday was a good day, several birthdays and Christmas's arrived at the same time - in terms of toys being delivered.

'The Man with a Van" arrived with my new Connolly leather seats and a job lot of spares I had bought

The seats are beautiful and I will post photos later once they are fitted,

The spares will take a while to be catalogued and preserved. They belonged to an ex-Aprilia owner in the Midlands who has decided to have a clear out. Some have suffered from damp storage, but all will, I think, be useable. It is likely to take some time to work out some of the smaller bits, but already I have unearthed some lovely bits and bobs.

Some are S1, some S2 and some that fit both, so I will probably sell on some of the S1 bits once they are cleaned up and identified.

It is a real adventure, because I didn't have a complete idea as to what I was buying ........ but highlights include an engine, 4 sets of driveshafts (3 original Italian sets and a set of Hardy Spicers)  a fuel pump/filter assembly, new wheel bearings (stored in an old fashioned 'Ovaltine' tin) , new front suspension springs, new set of pistons, a pair of hydraulic dampers, 2 oil pressure gauges, front brake drum etc etc

It is amazing that occasionally, you still come across these things - So exciting !

After the excitement of the bits arriving, it's back to business ! (Car needs to be ready for the Corbieres rally at the beginning of May)

The second running board is back on, which meant making another batch of sliding bolts. The suspension is all greased up and ready to go but if anyone can help - I need a greaser for the hanger roller bearing. It has a 17 mm nut and metric fine thread that fits onto a male thread - at  the moment I have to take the one off the other side every time I grease the suspension !

Plus, I have started to put the interior back together using the left over leather from the retrim. I didn't send the frames back to the UK so I am doing them. Front and back seat frames are ready now.

Before I can fit the seats I need to retrim the parcel shelf and side panels. The parcel shelf and cover for the boot hinges are a real mess. The cover was even crispier than the loaf of bread seen behind it ! This has now been rubbed down and painted prior to trimming.

I have decided to leave the roof lining until I can get a better pattern and all the blind bits, not ideal but that's life !

PS what are all these irritating tag labels that have just appeared on the text and how do I get rid of them ?

Simon,
I made up a greaser machining 17mm hex, drill and tap 10mm 1.0 and, as you can see, fit a modern grease nipple.
Noel

And you've acquired some Andre Telecontrol rear shock absorbers too.  There is information on the technical thread about these, if you can restore and fit them they are well worth the effort.

Just noticed a bit of "a tractor thing" going on ! Roger has a John Deere, Noel a Massey Fergusson , my Renault and Chris wanting to join the party ..... break away group ??

I know that I am not the only one with a Moto Guzzi or other motorbike,  so there's another break away group ...

Re Andre Telecontrol dampers, was this a 1st series thing, or an option across the series? Are they better than the later hydraulic dampers ?

Re greaser, an adaption to take a modern grease gun is a sensible option if I can't get the flat head greaser. I would prefer the later because it means I can do all of the greasers with one gun (except for the central prop bearing)

ps We have cleaned the dog and he is black again.

2nd series dampers are good in their own right.I don't think they were a budgeting replacement to cut costs. People like adjustable gadgets of course  but i think the Houdailles were superior.They are also adjustable on the unit itself and meet the  belgian machine testing for the MOT. (There are new cars that are struggling to get through the current suspension tests here (fiat 500)).This is in itself ridiculous but gives an idea of the capacity of the Houdailles. Only problem is that they are effectively sealed units .Servicing is not really necessary (and nearly impossible.)Just top up the oil now and then.

I have 1954 1 previous owner TEF Fergie, and a 1972 T120V Bonneville, can I join 8)

The LX 188 is my John Deere mower!! But I did own a Massey Ferguson MF 35, 3 cyl Perkins diesel and two stage clutch, excellent little tractors. Also had a small Kubota a few years back. I won't mention the Panther motorcycles...
Noel

Noel
But you've also got a TD5 , which is a bit like a tractor (ha ha - I had one and loved it!) so you can still join Roger and me ......

Getting there

Front all back together and working nicely, as with the back, I have added separate earths to everything. Some of the wires are beginning to deteriorate, so next year I think I will need to rewire the lights.

I can see now why my tell tales don't work. The headlight bulb holders have been modified and no longer have an the option of a small bulb behind the reflector. If anyone has a photo of the correct, unmolested bulb holder , I would appreciate it. then I can look out for a pair.

Front suspension oiled, radiator cleaned & flushed, I have temporarily replaced the thermostat with a correct straight tube which came in the box of spares because I am not convinced the thermostat is working properly. The housing is very tatty, so I can get that sorted whist still using the car

Fitted a new boot catch with one that locks ......

Front seats in and looking lovely and the inside already has that real leather smell ! They feel super-luxurious.

Starting on the side panels tomorrow with a visit to a friend who has a sewing machine. We will make up the parcel shelf (beaded edges) and door seals ready for fitting next week. Note to self - do the sewing before we have a glass of wine with the BBQ ......

Ready for a road test this pm and to set the lights tonight

I think the Aprilia bulb holders are the same as the early Aurelia, see attached pictures. note the side light festoon bulb is behind the holder and shines though a small hole.

Those are different to mine, I will dismantle and photograph. How are yours held in place ?

Just brilliant, i can't wait to hear about the road test !!

                                    Andy

Quick road test - 3O mins around the lanes. Lots of bumps to test the suspension and see whether anything falls off ! Walls so you can listen to the exhaust (although it's no Aurelia) and no one else about .....

All perfect ! Freshly oiled suspension makes a huge difference, no knocks and lovely turn in ....

Lights set on the garage wall and marked before taking off the reflector/lens units and tightening the bolts. Made the door seals and rear parcel shelf before lunch, so they are straight .....

Need to put the rest of the interior back together and then ready to roll

Brilliant !!

David

Just noticed that I have been doing my Aprilia Diary for exactly a year now. Lots of happy memories  .... and a reminder as to what I still have to do

My favourite image of the year was this view from our hotel window during our 10th wedding anniversary. Reminds me why we have and use old Lancias .

What a wonderful photo, Simon. Your car looks stunning! It reminds me why I like the Aprilia so much! Well done!
 
Tim

Upholstered one of the side panels today, took quite a while because lots of fiddly detail.

Once the basic shape has been cut out, the sides all have to be chamfered , the top edge significantly so. The panel was then covered in a kind of thin, padded nappy-liner before the fabric. I used 4mm staples to attach the fabric, as an amateur, tacks would have proved too much - Sorry purists !

Then I attached the covered rubber seal to the lower edge, sewed on a panel behind the door pegs before embarking on another bead along the top edge.

This final detail was achieved using a strip of fabric wrapped around hemp string - I had a few practice goes before the final version

The finished article looks very good - I would be happy even had I paid for it !!!

As mentioned elsewhere, I am going to keep the grey headlining until I can find an original to copy because I want to re-instate the rear blind. Even if I don't have the bits straight away, I want to have the guides in place. So if anyone can help and has either a headlining to copy, or has replaced their own and could lend me the tatty original, I would be eternally grateful !

Funny how the screen is held in - a few crinkly springs 

Hopefully have some time tomorrow to finish this side

Simon....your talents know no bounds........great stuff....a one man production line!


P

Can you imagine the speed of a first class restoration if we could combine Chugga & Simons talents into one person, the job would be finished before it started ;D
Can't say I've ever seen anything like the screen retention springs! look as though there's a fair bit of tension involved.

brian
8227 8)

Inspiring stuff.

David

Bit of time today between dropping the wires on the Syrah and preparing for the first treatment on the Carignan tomorrow. Weather not ideal but we are going organic, so HAS to be done - prevention is the name of the game ...

Anyway, back to important matters - finished off the first side and started on the other one. I have learnt a couple of things from the first side:

1) the panel fit is vital, so make sure the new panel matches the original exactly
2) better to pre-drill the screw holes before fitting the "nappy-liner" and leave a bit of space around the holes. Even though I used a bradawl type tool to make the hole, I found I was still picking up the wadding with the drill bit, so had to be very careful.

For the purists, I have covered the panels in one piece, however there were seams on the originals, one near the grab handle and another hidden behind the seat upright - photos for reference. (I am keeping all the original fabric and panels in case anyone else needs to make copies - this includes the seats which were unpicked rather than cut )

Door seal re-threaded with the old rubber tubing,and again for reference, 2.8 m (ish) of 10mm round rubber section

Back from holiday and some time to spend in the garage .... Rally des Corbières next week so need to get moving ! I believe we may have a UK Aurelia coming

Second side panel finished and fitted, included stripping, repairing and repainting the trafficator. This one has been wired differently, so I have modified the wiring diagram to suit. No photo because I forgot !

It was much easier to fit this side panel, I pre-drilled the holes using the old panel as a template and then using a bradawl, found all the old holes. Footwell panel less of a fankel because no cutout for the accelerator pedal

Start on the door panels tomorrow

First of the door panels done. Started by trimming the outer frame followed by the inner panel

I cut some strips of thin wood to make the relief panel in the centre. The curved one was notched on the inside edge to allow it to be bent into shape. Then 2 layers of nappy liner for the "padded feel" (I may try a third layer on the other doors) before covering.

The 2 pieces were then screwed together (1/2" x 4s) . I have trimmed the whole of the centre panel so it looks OK whilst waiting to make the carpet pieces for the bottom. Screwed on my re-made "T" brackets, pre-drilled the mounting holes, cleaned the splines on the (Appia) window winders and door handle, cleaned surrounding paintwork and ready to fit - took about 5hrs in all

After a minor adjustment to the panel near the door peg, all fitted very nicely.

Final job was to make new grab handles. I glued some of the seat leather to a layer of trim material, cut it into strips and plaited them - gluing the ends together so it doesn't fall apart.  I tried 2 layers of leather but there was too much "edge" and the addition of the fabric gives a nice thickness to it

I am delighted with the contrast between the fabric and leather - I know this isn't an original combination (leather seats and fabric doors) but it does look very nice ...... I didn't want it to look too cow-like !

So, one down , 3 to go !

Excellent work!

That really does look good !!

2 Down - 2 to go !

Fronts may have to wait a bit because I haven't worked out how to make the pockets yet ......

Simon,
i don't think it's possible to send a photo (of the  lower door trims) via pm.. Your right , it's more like a carpet compared with the trim in the rest of the door. Mine are worse than they look in the photo and need replacing on one side at least; (they are rotten around the lower edges from damp in the past)  
and below a (not very good) photo of the carbs.best i have at the moment...

Thanks for the photos, the one of the doors is a help; along with others that have been sent, it helps me work out how to create the bottom panel.

Would love to see more of the double carb set up when you have a chance, is it a similar set up to David's (Wheeler) ? The air filters look different but I can't quite see what is underneath !

ps Bought a sewing machine at a Vide Grenier (literally "empty your attic") in the village today, so can embark on the front door pockets, I just need to learn how to use a sewing machine .....

3 down , one to go .....

New sewing machine works very well. The little tabs for the pockets were a bit fiddly, but after a bit of trial and error, they look nice.
Once the pockets were made, they screw onto the back of the door cards as a separate item.

Looking at "Scarpia's" door panels, the bead around the panel looks very neat. There was no evidence of similar on my door panels. But then the bead at the top of the side panel had been lost as well, and I only found the bead on the parcel shelf once it was all disassembled.

I will continue looking at other original interiors and see if it was always fitted because I can always make up some bead and add it later

The lightbulb holder has been modified to remove the festoon bulb , so if anyone has a couple of similar holders but un-molested, I would be interested.

Finally a new strap to hold the spare in place ......

Had a lovely trial run in 30 degree sunshine on Monday so a good shakedown for the Rally de Roussillon this weekend.

Slightly better pic of my setup.

David,
I'd kill for a similar set-up  -  these engines can breathe a lot more deeply  -  I've got a Weber 36DR5 on mine (as installed originally) and that's not a bad piece of kit.
Nick

I am sorry to say these do not belong to me, but that doesn't stop me dreaming about how nice they are!

Colin

I too would love a set up like that - but where would you find one ?

I'll put it on my Amazon wish-list and see what happens .....

seeing we are in the mood for such things, here's a better photo from a few years ago.It's exactly as illustrated inthe Aprilia section of La lancia aprilia .It's the only aprilia I've come across with the abarth conversion till now. 

"Cinderella, you shall go to the ball"

All 4 doors done, complete with plaited door pulls, the only thing missing is the rear central armrest. Unfortunately there was an error on the re-upholstery that needed to be rectified and it has not been possible to get it done before this weekend. Shame because the rest is lovely ...

Will post photos after the weekend - weather looks promising ....

Great stuff.....looking more divine by the day......


P

Huge respect to you Simon, the work you turn out and the speed at which you do so is amazing and an inspiration to those of us up against dead lines to complete a re-build. Thanks so much for you're regular contributions.

Good luck and I very much look forward to seeing the results of your labour. Maybe at the Sliding Pillar Rally?

Robin.

Thank you for your comments and the effort was definitely worth it ! Just back from the rally.

Stunning scenery, amazing roads and a lovely selection of motor cars all washed down with a glass of Gallic flair. We had,I think, 34 cars representing each of 9 decades of Lancia. The earliest being a Belna from the 30's ( real French one !) and the most recent an Ypsilon from last year - from the 60 or so participants, we probably had someone from each of the 9 decades as well .....

Apart from the Belna and Ypsilon, there was also our Aprilia, 2 B20's, Appia Vignale convertible, Flaminia PF coupé, Flavia, 2000's, Fulvia Fanalone, coupés and Zagatos, Beta saloon and MonteCarlo, Integrales and Thesis. Crews came from all over France, Belgium and the UK (the delightful Roger Bowen and the ever resourceful Peter Harding and his partner, Mici)

We did a lot of driving yesterday along steep, winding roads climbing high into the Pyrenées, passing through the ski stations where the same roads were nearly impassable with snow less than a month ago. On one section I didn't get out of third (or use second) for more than half an hour, I just kept swinging the steering wheel ! We finally stopped at the Vaubin designed hill fort of Fort Louis , built to defend the original France/Spain border. Lunch was a typical French affair taking 3 hours .... and the first of the cakes, an amazing edible recreation of the gateway to the fort !

After lunch we visited another of Vaubin's creations at Villefranche le Confluent before an awesome drive through the Corbières to Maury. A backdrop of snow-laden mountains, verdant pasture and fragrant garrigue - we live here but it still took our breath away !

Just time to stop for a tasting of the local Maury wines (vin doux naturel, or fortified sweet wines) before returning to the hotel for another enormous meal which included Cassoulet and a "Stratos" inspired cake !

Today was more relaxed - A short drive along similar roads to a chateau originally belonging to one of Simon de Montfort's minions, Thomas somebody or other ! (Simon de M came down here in the early 1200's to help the Pope get rid of the Cathars, consequently Simon is still an uncommon christian name around here !) We were treated to an interactive demonstration of swordfighting and chivalry. An amazing place where I would love to have spent more time, however lunch beckoned ....

Another filling lunch and it was time to bid goodbye to friends, new and old. We did about 550 kms in the 2 days, of which little was flat, or straight and the Aprilia was fantastic. They are remarkable cars and very modern. The only time you feel unable to keep up with modern traffic is either on the autoroute or accelerating uphill (or not accelerating , more to the point!)
The only thing I had to do this morning was re-oil the lower suspension guides after the rigours of yesterday

Gerard Cassagnes has been organising these events for the LCF for a number of years and they are great affaires, if you ever get an opportunity to attend, do so !

Photos in 2 parts and apologies for the quality of some of the pictures

A few more photos

Brilliant !!!!

A just reward for your excellent and incredibly swift efforts over the last months.

You most definitely make me feel jealous that you can achieve so much in such a short time.

I am sure you will now continue to reap the benefits from owning your Aprilia.

                                Andy

Fantastic job !

Congratulations !!

Maciek from Poland

Fantastic, well done indeed! Just the lift I needed to press on with the Fanalone for Fulvia 50. :)

Robin.

Thanks everyone !

I have added a few new shiny bits that I found on eBay.It . Ever since I lost a hubcap over a precipice, I have been on the lookout for a/set of, new one/s. I came across these when they were advertised as Ardea furgoncino hubcaps, so checked the size and hey, perfect. They were advertised as originals and as far as I can tell they are, little details around the edge at the back suggest they are correct, also they have a slightly patinated chrome finish , not a new, super shiny chrome.

He also had a (definitely original !) centre rad. grill starting handle plug. I haven't seen one of these for a while and my first Aprilia had one ... so that went in the basket !

Swiftly followed by a repro sunvisor frame

I had to stop before I was (very) tempted by an original rear view mirror ......

Finally a photo of the finished interior, complete with the central armrest which turned up the day after the rally - c'est la vie !

Oh, and I forgot these little beauties .....

Mine are made of a thin plastic and are a bit broken and cracked in places. These are heavy glass and lovely . Just need a bit of a clean and then can be fitted when I find a lens cover for the central light.

I think Juliet needs to do a Boden/Wine Society shop to balance things up a bit  !

Skip the Boden, just concentrate on the Wine Society !!!!!
 
.... and I'm not sure that I have ever before seen 'Wine Society' and 'balance' in the the same sentence !!

                             Andy

The weather down here has been really "cruddy" not at all what we expect .... so it was great that when we woke up on Sunday it was beautiful - a real Aprilia day!

First up was a Vide Grenier (car boot sale) , but since an Aprilia boot is very small I had to curtail my purchases, so only came home with a microscope for Mathilda and a wicker basket for Juliet's bicycle (also found reel of solder and some welding goggles for me !).

Then we all went to a birthday party for one of M's friends, and on the way home tried to find a field of poppies for a photo. Really frustrating because we have fields and fields of bright red poppies at the moment, but it has either been pouring down or the fields have been too muddy to drive into to get a decent picture .... we are having a VERY late spring here, everything is a couple of weeks late

The Appia furgoncino is arriving on Thursday, which means a spring clean in the garage. Someone gave me a dozen IKEA Billy bookcases at the weekend so I have reorganised the space for the Appia and Aprilia parts. The Renault 4 stash has been moved elsewhere, just keeping the day to day 4L bits.

Very excited about the Appia .....

And a lovely little Velosolex to potter around on ;D

Brian
8227 8)

Re VeloSolex - I use it to collect the bread and other essentials in the morning, hence the fruit panier on the back ! The epicerie/depot du pain is only a few hundred yards away, but it is fun using the VS.

ps I do have the blue and white striped jumper, but not the beret or onions .....

Listen very carefully I shall say this only once, zat can be arranged.

Brian
 8227 8)

After what seems a tortuous wait , the Appia furgoncino came to its (is it a he or she ?) new home today !

First impressions ..........

Fabulous, what a beast ! Bigger, taller and more purposeful than I was expecting. The only one I think I have ever seen in the flesh before was a KCA (?) furgoncino in Italy in 1981, but it seemed smaller. It may have even been an Ardea (!) - I'm sure Ade will inform me ... these vans are so rare they tend to merge in my small brain.

Beautiful, even Jules was moved to comment ! Mathilda loved being able to sit three abreast along the bench seat, so the girls are happy !

Several friends called round to see our latest arrival and without exception, they were enthralled. Dog (bodywork friend) couldn't keep his hands of her, and is now desperate to work his magic

Lots of boxes of bits, it's like buying a 5,000 piece jigsaw - but without the picture on the box !

Can't wait - but need to slow down and make a plan of action ......

Garage currently has more than 200 years worth of motoring experience abiding within ( Aprilia, Appia, Solex and R4)

Next conundrum - start Appia diary or include in Aprilia diary,  or rename as "A" diary to include both ?   ...... bear with me !

Well done !!  I saw the consortium van at Wiscombe and was struck by the wide track.  I think it was Chugga who said it was an Aurelia front axle.

New thread for this one please.

David

It a Furgoncino conclusion regarding the thread name??!!

Tim, that is awful !!!!!!!!!

New thread, 'The Furgoncino Frolic'.  Just a thought.

                                   Andy

I am glad Alan delivered the Furgoncino to you safely, the last time I saw it was in Devon in his storage, a fine vehicle you will finish it off to high standard that is for sure.

Thank you gents,

I will start a new thread for the furgoncino, despite Tim's awful pun ! But, not for a couple of days, this weekend has been busy bottling the Rosé and then today a 110 km trip out in the Aprilia to Caunes-Minervois, site of Roman marble quarries among other things.

We also met a local Citroen Light 15 that was driven across Australia 3 years ago, a 1955 car that has never been rebuilt and is its full unrestored, flat-painted glory !

The Aprilia is driving better and better every weekend, the suspension becoming more supple and comfortable, the engine wanting to be driven harder etc. Oil consumption is negligible , I use a bit of water  - 1/2 litre in 800 kms but that includes the crawl up the Pyrenées a couple of weeks ago, so maybe that doesn't matter too much - and the front diff seal leaks. There is also slight piston slap on one piston because it picked up 20 yrs ago when a water pump failed and the engine got hot on a long run ! But no smoke so it is difficult to justify new pistons (although I have bought a set of Fulvia pistons for the future) just yet ......So for the time being it is a case of 'use and enjoy'

Immediate priorities are to rectify a prop vibration that is felt above 100 kms/hr and to sort out the engine thermostat, because even down here it takes too long to warm up and the oil pressure is too high. So I will check the pressure relief valve as well

sounds great (the Rosé i mean of course.. ;)
time to enjoy i think but the things you mention are familiar.New flexible couplings maybe for the prop, i run with my shutters closed (manually) to get the engine warm enough in anything but really warm weather and regulating the oil pressure is something of a mystery as it seems there are different sorts of items found in the release mechanism depending on the car.Either replaced over the years or from the factory is unclear. I've seen some with a ball bearing on the spring whereas mine has a small mushroom shaped valve.Always difficult to determine if it really does the job or not.  I guess it's possible to measure the varying pressure with the right equipment.
I have a persistent leak from the rear diff and keep meaning to tackle it but it's a big job...no idea which seal i will have to replace or its availability.
happy motoring.

I have the shutters on the automatic system and they eventually open but I have temporarily removed the inline thermostat housing because I wasn't sure the thermostat was working ( and it had been badly repaired and was a mess ....)

I am sure I read somewhere on the Forum about a motorbike thermostat fitting the holder, must check that one. I find that because the oil pressure is at the top of the gauge for a good 20 mins I am cautious not to use too many revs. The oil pressure valve is the 'mushroom' type !

Will check the prop couplings

ps Rosé production was 181 (individually numbered) bottles !

one of my older threads (http://www.lancia.myzen.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=566.0)
the thermostat on my car was partially disintegrating.remade it as described above.My oil pressure is also max in the warm up phase but steadies down to normal once warm.It will always go to the top of the normal section when the engine works harder though.(which by definition is then "normal").The flexible couplings transformed my car. Unpleasant to drive before and completely smooth after.
We spent many years taking our holidays in and around Gruissan (windsurfers).As I recall 181 bottles was approximately a two week vacation.. ;).)

Thanks for the photos. The thermostat is on order ....

As I'm sure you already know, Gruissan was where the classic film "Betty Blue 37.2°" was made, although the original huts have made way for more modern, and less interesting, dwellings.

If you come back, come and help us drink the Rosé,  ( some red as well ......) we are only 30 mins from Gruissan !

How did you ever work out that thermostat fitted...

David

i don't remember...
the new housing has the same outside dimensions as the original as there is very little space where it fits.There are also take offs for the heater and temperature sender unit which made the project very crowded..I don't think many modern car thermostats would have fitted and i suspect i had a tip from an augusta owner about fitting a motorcycle one.

Aprilia Lunch

The Aurelias have their annual and well attended lunch, 15 cars this year . So,  I have decided to start the Aprilia Lunch, however since mine is the only Aprilia down here, I am doing it slightly differently.

We (Jules and I) are aiming for 1 car and 15 lunches this year, which works out the same !!!

We try and have a bi-weekly, no children or anyone else, lunch out where we have a catch up, discuss plans and where she tells me that I'm not allowed to buy any more toys .....

Today's resto:

Auberge de la Croisade in Quarante
Set 3 course menu 15 euros
Extensive local wine list (no wine en pichet !)
Starter - prawn and coriander wrap and salad
Main - Chicken and chorizo with polenta and grilled veg
Pudding - café gourmande
Value €€ (€ cheap €€€ expensive)
Location - beautiful, shady spot next to the Canal Du Midi. Very friendly
Parking - cramped
Local roads - fantastic and empty
Recommend ? - Yes

Next we are going to do the "Sliding Pillau" rally, where we go in search of Indian food, very very difficult down here and always one of the first boxes to tick on trips back to the UK !

Bon weekend !

Yes, and there you are! And aren't I envious?

Colin

The trees and landscaping have matured a bit since you were here Colin !

Not a Lancia, but the joys of renovation .... and a touch of human kindness

Since getting the tractor and putting it back on the road (field !) the hydraulics have not worked. I cleaned the filters, changed the fluid (all 26 litres of it) replaced the piston seal, cleaned and rebuilt the hydraulic distributer etc. All worked until I tried to lift something heavy and then the speed regulator valve exploded, producing a very impressive, 12ft high oil spout !

I had then come to the end of my very limited hydraulic knowledge , but guessed that we had a pressure regulation problem !

I phoned a friend and he gave me M. Moustche's number (and yes he does have a very fine handlebar mustache ) who I phoned at lunchtime on Saturday. He was out with me 25 mins later .......

A very knowledgeable chap who is retired after 45 years repairing tractors and he immediately pointed to the likely source of the problem, another box further down the hydraulic line. He then asked for a 17 mm spanner and took the cover off and spotted the likely cause - a writhing nest of maggots !

He outlined what I needed to do to said box and has assured me that all will be well once it is done !

I asked how much I owed him, but he wouldn't take a centime, however he did accept a couple of bottles of our Rosé

Just a nice story about some of the things we see and delightful people we meet, as we journey along ................

Lovely drive yesterday morning on the way for an "Aprilia Breakfast" , along one of my favourite roads that climbs into the hills behind us. Used several times by "Le Tour" - but not this year,  unfortunately.

"Nice to do" job today, not the usual "need to do" !

The starter lever on my car has never had the moulded knob on the end of the lever, so every time you start the car you think 'Oh , I must do that' but never do ...... so today that was rectified !

On the "need to do" list is grease the driveshafts, oil the bottom suspension and adjust the front brakes. Hopefully this week......

Aprilia Lunch 2

L'Anais in Ginestas

Set 3 course menu 13.50 euros
Local wines inc wine en pichet
Starter - charcuterie, salad (lovely herby dressing)
Main - Braised lamb shanks with mustard mash and leeks
Pudding - basket of red fruits with home made sorbet
Value € (very good value)
Location - centre of quiet Languedoc village with art deco resto and zinc bar. Run by delightful English expats
Parking - easy
Local roads - guiet and empty
Recommend ? - Yes ( Fridays are "Fish and Chips" days and are great if you are feeling homesick !)

This is one of our regulars, but today the village hosted a stop for the 25th "Tour de l'Aude" Rally. Around 75 cars turned up, ranging from Delages, Bugattis, Bentleys, Citroens, Fiat, Alfa, MGs, and a couple of absolutely delicious Amilcars ......

We took the Aprilia and waved them off - Mathilda posing as usual !

Lunch two and all that lot turn up...  At this rate lunch three is going to be like the Goodwood Festival.

At last - I can drive the Aprilia again !

Lovely run out into the hills, everything nice and warm (including me - doesn't bode well for Italy next July !) and my new radiator cap doesn't leak ..... the rubber gasket I made wasn't hugely successful, but amazingly there was an unused original in the spares I bought earlier in the year which still has the cork gasket. Works much better !

Talking of corks, we labeled and hand-numbered this year's vintage of our wine last week. Some of this is making its way to a club member as an exchange for Aprilia bits ..... Next year I hope that the Appia furgoncino will be making the deliveries !

Finally, we were delighted to receive the Farnham Trophy for PGY. David Laver picked up the award, gave a rousing speech and sent it out here, now pride of place in the sitting room !!!

Thanks David

Aprilia Lunch 3

L'Asphodele in Oupia

Set 3 course menu 14.80 euros (inc wine)

Starter - Olive bread and salad or prawn and trout rillettes
Main - Tender pork in mustard sauce or steak and chips (fait maison)
Pudding - Cherry Clafoutis or tarte au chocolat
Value € (very good value)
Location - centre of very quiet village
Parking - easy
Local roads - dusty and bumpy !
Recommend ? - Yes - probably the best value for money in the area at the moment !

We took the back roads to this resto, to see how other vineyards are progressing as much as anything else. The vintage is very late this year, no-one is picking reds yet. Whites only started this week - I reckon we are 2-3 weeks behind last year

Aprilias excel on unmade roads, I can drive tracks like this more comfortably than in the Land Rover ...... 

Time to give the Aprilia a good service, change all the oils (inc front suspension and rear Houdaille shocks) and grease the driveshafts etc before the weather turns and she is put away for the winter.

Finding the correct, high quality oils down here can be quite difficult, but fortunately the "Penrite" stockist for France lives the other side of Beziers (about 50 mins away) and with the 20% discount for collection in person, the prices are not too disastrous .....

The other plus is that he lives in the village of Pinet, home to the unique grape variety of "Picpoul". It produces a delicious dry white wine which is perfect with the salty, Mediterranean oysters we have here. So a visit to the Cave Coop was in order ! At 4€ a bottle it is a bargain and much cheaper than the oil.

It is also a very nice apèro wine - there is a glass in front of me as I type !

A list of oils I am going to use:

Engine - Classic light 20w60
Box - Forest Gear Oil - a EP 90 GL4 oil
Diff - Mild EP - another GL4 oil (an SAE 140 EP replacement)
Front suspension - Classic light for the top and will do a test on Classic light or EP 90 in the bottom (I think Geoff suggested this for Aurelias)
Rear shocks - Shocker oil 2 - However, I will need to remove, empty and rinse the shocks first because they may well still have "Castor Oil" in them.
Driveshafts - Graphite grease for inner and High Melt for the outers ( supposed to be more resistant to water washout - another trial !)
Wheel bearings - High Melt grease
Central bearing - High Melt grease
Steering box - Mild EP

The average temps here are quite high so I have erred on the side of the thicker oils. The original Lancia data gave a range depending on temperature (including something called "Lancia CO 1045 - 75% MobilOil A and 25% Napha !)

Luckily down here Penrite products are stocked by most auto stores.

As a comparison the oils I use are:

Engine - Penrite Everyday 15W-40 mineral
Gearbox - Penrite Sin 75 gear oil (75W-90)
Diff - Penrite Sin 80 gear oil (80W-140)
Front suspension - Top, Classic light.
                          Bottom, SAE 50W engine oil. Someone recommended to use the heaviest you can get in there!
Bearings - Castrol HTB bearing grease
Steering box - Penrite steering lube
Radiator - Red Line Water Wetter with de-mineralised or distilled water.

And then maybe a glass or two of nice cool local Lucinda Estate Chardonnay...
Noel

Just be aware of mixing synth and non synth oils as they can react over time to produce gluey solids which can cause oil way blockages so I have been told.

Servicing the Aprilia

As always with old cars you start one job and end up doing several more ..... started at the front and am working (ie not finished) backwards. First get the whole car high enough to crawl around comfortably

When changing the oil (4.5l of 20w60) on an Aprilia you have to remember to drain the filter barrel as well. There isn't a modern-type replaceable oil filter but a vane filter which sieves out deposits and they fall to the bottom of the barrel. There is a drain plug which empties this - directly onto the side of the sump !
The vane is automatically turned, and cleaned, every time you depress the clutch ......but when changing the oil it is a good idea to rotate the vane a few times by hand before draining the barrel
Once clean oil is in you can turn the engine over on the starter without the ignition so the oil is pushed around without strain

The sump-plug needs a large 22mm Allen key to undo it. There is a combined special tool that does this and the 14mm plugs on the steering and gearboxes

The gearbox is drained underneath and is refilled via a window in the passenger foot well. It is not very easy to remove the plug because it is angled in such a way that the special tool fouls the sides and floor, so I made up an extended Allen key using a spare 14mm bolt and 2 locked nuts at the other end so you can turn it with a spanner. A small blob of dum-dum on the bolt will even lift the nut out without dropping it on the floor ! Refilled with 1litre of EP 90

The oil in the steering box was sucked out with a large syringe and rubber tube and refilled with EP 140

Next were the front suspension units which were first drained through the bolts on the bottom of the units and then refilled with EP 90 using the special syringe. I left the bolts out of the bottom until I could see clean oil coming through. Reservoir for the top was refilled with 20w60 and pumped a few times

Whilst at it I took off the front drums to have a look at everything, I have always blocked the plunger on the brake fluid reservoir because it can be a pain to get the drums back on if the return spring is tired the shoes move !
All OK, quick wire brush to remove the dust and refit. Adjust the shoes and all finished

It was then that "the extras" became apparent. I had always been aware that the drop arm was a bit bent , but I hadn't realised how much! This meant that I had to remove the steering arm, tie bar and all the bushes and eccentric adjusting bolts - some of which were seized ....then once it's off, everything needs to be cleaned, checked and repainted. Oh and don't forget to strip the underside of the valance, clean the axle and repaint it all !

The eccentric bolts have a series of holes and pins to adjust the toe-in, but all these were blocked and had to be redrilled (3mm) and all the split pins had been sheared, being held on with Loctite (I hope)

I had new tie bar bushes on the shelf but not the steering arm bushes , so quick call to Elizabeth at Omicron and I should be able to put it all back together next week

Then I can start on the back .....

ps in the special tool picture there is a screwdriver with blue tape on it - this is to remove the hub caps without chipping the paint !

More photos

Ah yes, the bar across the front - so useful to attach a tow rope.

The bars showed more than one scar !

Question - is there a home use/DIY way of setting the tracking ? I know a friendly garage who can do it for me but I would rather do it in one go here ...

I used my pair trusty tracking sticks (bought when I was much younger and have set every car I have owned ever since and never had a problem). Not sure where you would buy them these days but worth every penny.

Some options over three pages:

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorsport/wheel-alignment-products

Or

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trackace-Laser-Wheel-Alignment-Tracker-Tracking-Gauges-DIY-Check-Toe-In-Out-Tool-/300970019080?pt=UK_Measuring_Tools_Levels&hash=item4613360908

Guy

I use a simple eyeball method which works given that the front and rear track are the same.
Get your head down level with the wheel centre in front of the car and line up one front wheel with the rear one by looking along the outside edge of the tyre and making small adjustments of the steering wheel as required.
Then look along the edge of the other front wheel and you see straight away if you have toe in or toe out.
Adjust the track rod length as required to get just a hint of toe in. (The Aprilia maintenance booklet suggests zero for radial tyres.)
1/16th of an inch at the wheel rim using sticks or whatever equates to 3/8th over the 8 foot wheelbase.ie your line of sight should take you 3/8ths of an inch outside the rear wheel.Take the guesswork out if you must by taping a strip of 3/8 or 10mm ply vertically to the rear wheel.
It goes without saying that the car needs to be on a level surface with the tyres pumped up hard and the car rocked to and fro a bit before doing the eyeball checks.
Hope that is all clear!!

Thanks for your comments on tracking, everyone

In the end I took several of your ideas and set up on my wheeled seat,  a building laser (which produces horizontal and vertical lines) to line up the grooves on the central groove on the front drum with the centre of the back tyre - since it was mentioned that the track is the same front and back, it isn't going to be a mile out. I had to use the holes and dowels on both sides to get it right.

All put back together with new dowels , split pins and copperslip so should be easier to dismantle next time. Finally reset the steering limiters to stop the RH tyre touching the inner wheel arch

I am going to try this and see how it feels and maybe get my local friendly garage to sanity check it !

The straightened bar means the steering wheel is centralised again , so I'll have to get used to the new position ....

Front end finished, moved along the drive train.

I have mentioned elsewhere about a vibration above about 55MPH and someone suggested checking the couplings (sorry can't remember who !) for wear/flex. They are all very good and no degradation, however the flexible mounting for the central bearing is quite tired and badly split on one side, allowing the prop to move slightly to that side - so I am sure this is the problem

Has anyone tackled this job before and can they give me some pointers ? Are the sheets of flex available cut to size or will I have to source and trim them ?

Thanks

ps Syrah vendanged yesterday using the 4L - a job I want the Appia to do next year !

The Appia also needs to feature on the 2014 labels.

Then it needs to join in with this:

http://www.vintagefestival.co.uk/events/classic-car-boot-sale-12th-october-2013

David

Looks good! Is it free do you know? And is there still no "congestiion charge " or similar at the weekend?

£3/adult - kids free - we enjoyed it.  Busy enough that I expect they'll be a repeat.

David

In amongst tractors, pig-prep and winemaking (more Juliet than me !) I got a couple of hours in the garage so I took the central bearing out in order to repair the support. As always you always find something else ..... today it was a couple of collapsed bearings in one driveshaft

I have the Aprilia fairly high off the ground to give me a bit more comfort room underneath, but it means that I am not happy lifting one rear wheel off the ramp to enable the prop shaft to be turned (for undoing the bolts). So I took off one of the drive shafts instead.

I have the Italian drive shafts but one of the outer ends has, now had, metalastic joints instead of the needle roller bearings. With use, these have given up the ghost so will need to be replaced with proper bearings, fortunately I have a few on the shelf ...... but it means that I will have to clean , paint and reassemble it all and will probably do the other side whilst at it !

Once the prop could be rotated, I marked up the alignment with blobs of paint then took off the rear section. The support is completely cream-crackered and definitely needs replacing. I have found a rubber supplier who has sent me a couple of different sheets of reinforced rubber mat. One is "inserton rubber" - a bit like exhaust hanger and the other is conveyor belt matting. Both in 6mm thick. I will make up a template and make the 3 pieces necessary

In order to clean and paint it all I have dismantled the shaft and bearing - the spider was a pig to remove and needed a lot of heat ! You can see the original Lancia alignment marks in the last photo

If I can find time over the weekend I will take the rest of the drivetrain off so it can be cleaned up 

Prop shaft and bearing cleaned up and painted this morning. The bearing is perfect and just needs re-greasing. It is a sliding bearing, allowing a few mm of backwards and forwards movement. The fibre seals are slightly slack so when I put it back together I will pack them very slightly with some gasket paper around the outside.

The spider is stamped 1945 so appears to have been some manufacture during the war - or they were used for military purposes !

I would quite like to change the grease nipple or find another grease gun nozzle that fits the current one so I can keep the suspension oiler just for the suspension.....if anyone can help ?

Have ordered new HT bolts and nylocks. Not original I know, but I don't have any drilled 14 mm bolts and castle-ated nuts. Still waiting for the rubber matting

A few more minutes after lunch, so here is a picture of the propshaft bearing back together

Also started cleaning up the driveshaft and finding the spare parts. I had to remove the outer spider in order to remove the bearing holder because it was one without a greaser and since the new bearings need to be greased .....

The spider needed a LOT of heat to get it off, and then the inner cups had to be cut off with a Dremel, all a bit of a faff ! However I have found a set of very good bronze bearings in a box, already attached to spiders , so I will use those instead.

These bronze bearings must be the ones that Mic talked about (bottom left on final picture), but I must admit, I have never seen them before, only the needle roller type. I suspect they will not be as robust and will need more maintainance than the needle roller type, but I can save my roller bearings for the other 3 joints .

Simon,
Pardon my ignorance but is the grease nipple you're looking a normal screw grease nipple or something more exotic, I have a box tobacco tin of various grease nipples some new, that are about 40 + years old, do you have a photo of one as you're quite welcome to some of these if suitable for your needs.
My grease gun that I purchased back in the 1960's, I think it's a Rom Pom, came with a needle type nozzle that you use to push the ball bearing in the centre of the grease nipple down, very good for clearing out old grease!

Brian
8227 8)

Thanks Brian

Here is a picture of what I have shown alongside an Aprilia-like greaser. Unfortunately it has an imperial thread pitch instead of the metric fine on mine

Simon, I think these are referred to as slide-on grease nipples. In my junk box I have two (as in the photo) that I must have bought at some point a thousand years ago and never used. The threads may not be what you want, but might be bodge-able – about 8.5mm diameter at the outer end and with a small taper – the pitch looks just over 1.0mm. The hexagon is 15mm across flats.

I would be happy to post these to you that would help.

Colin

Simon,
Colin's your best bet on this one, mine are a bit more modern, sorry.
Brian
8227 8)

Thank you Gents

Colin has sorted me out !

Both types of matting arrived yesterday and I have had some time this afternoon to make up the bearing supports.

I have gone with the 6mm conveyor belt rubber because it is less stretchy and stiffer. Still flexible enough to allow some movement but will hold the prop in a straight line without sagging. I have made a copy of the supports if anyone is interested

Final photo shows the supports and plates fitted - and I know the bolts are the wrong way round - they kept falling out when I wanted to take the photo !

Rest of the prop removed and painted, next is the diff oil seal .....

As an aside, I placed a Screwfix order (for HT bolts and nylocks amongst other things) on Sunday and it arrived today - amazing when you consider where we live !

Simon, your diary is an inspiration to me, and no doubt to many others. Keep the pictures and tech tips coming - I'm fascinated by the detail! As someone who's languishing at the back of the field in the Aprilia Restoration Hurdles, your updates encourage me not to give up!
 
Best wishes,
Tim

Thanks Tim, would love to see some photos of your car, I don't recall having seen any ? If there are any bits you need photographing to assist in your rebuild, please let me know and I will endeavour to post them

Today's problem/challenge is front diff oil seal which has been leaking for years, as you can see from the state of the diff casing and rear spring. At least it won't rust ....

On removing the spider the cause is obvious, a deep groove in the shaft that had previously been braized but has worn again. I will need to sleeve the shaft and replace the seal (43x28x10 mm for reference)

As always, everything needs cleaning up and painting. Bit of bling on the flexi's - I painted the metal bits with furtan(?) to turn the rust black so they look prettier !!!

Finally a shot down the transmission tunnel. Not sure if I can clean this up, maybe best just to spray it with black waxoyl and leave it ......

"Finally a shot down the transmission tunnel. Not sure if I can clean this up, maybe best just to spray it with black waxoyl and leave it ...... "

I know I'm not as much of a perfectionist as you are Simon, but I'd go for Waxoyl ;)
Looking at it I think you'd have a heck of a job painting it.

Brian
8227 8)

Brian, I tried to clean it up but cannot get my arm down the tunnel, so yes it is black-waxoyled !

Everything else has been cleaned and painted ready to re-assemble, just waiting to sort out the sleeve on the diff. spider. I have cleaned up the front of the diff but really need to take it all to pieces to clean properly, so it will have to wait ......

All the spiders and bearing clamps have got stamped numbers all over them. Apart from the numbers on the spiders (1,3,7 & 8) which I presume correspond to the bearing caps (although the caps are not numbered !) the others don't appear to correspond to anything else, maybe batch numbers ? For example one is marked 39 another 0 and another 58.

The spiders have date stamps, 1938 and 1945 but I can't read the stamp on the shaft itself. I haven't taken the balls out of the shaft because it moves very freely and has no play, so it seems prudent to leave alone ! I will regrease and re-assemble

I have added a picture of a special spanner bought from Harry years ago, specifically adapted for removing the castle-ated nuts from the stub-axle and the centre drum nuts. These 30mm nuts can be very tight, especially the outer ones which get wet and seize. The split pins rust and disintegrate etc etc. The "spanner-surface" is quite narrow and the nuts easily round off.

The spanner is nearly 18" long, has a ground face and is nearly straight, with no offset, so you get maximum contact and purchase ! The other end is 27mm which is useful as well !

Finally, how do you know when you are spending too much time in the garage ?

Your 8 yr old daughter draws a picture of your car in bits and your wife bringing you another cup of tea ......

Very smart.......love the pic.....your families talents knows no ends!


P

What did you use to cut the conveyor belting?

David

David,
I would have thought a fine bladed electric jigsaw would work quite well.


Brian
8227 8)

David, the shape was cut using a new Stanley knife blade against a steel ruler and the the holes were made with leather punches. A fine jigsaw may work as well

Have been waiting for some bits to arrive so I can finish the "service" - a new oil seal and shaft repair sleeve. I had not come across "speedi-sleeves" before, but Martin Cliffe told me about them, so it arrived yesterday along with a new seal. The big advantage is that the sleeve is so thin you use the same sized seal.
 
The notes that come with the sleeves recommend that you fill the groove with plastic-metal ,or similar and fit the seal before it sets, then you cut off the  flange , et voila ! Seems to work because once it was all refitted and a few miles test drive and it doesn't leak ......

I am very happy with the central prop-bearing support, a road test showed much , much less vibration (at 110kph). It remains to see whether it lasts another 66 years ....

The road test also showed up the improved steering following the replacement metalastic joints and straightened steering arms - the steering wheel is centred again - I'll have to get used to that ! No knocks from the suspension but one front brake back plate is touching on LH bends, so it means that the new ones will have to be fitted sooner rather than later ...

I also modified a brass slide-on greaser by taking an M10 thread, grinding it down to M8 (ish) and then re-threading it to fit the centre bearing. It is shown along side the greaser given to me by Colin (big thanks - the other went on the drive shaft) that will go on the end of the wire hanger.

The RH driveshaft looks nice, will have to do the other one now !

Bit more bling around the place, all the bolts have been replaced with the correct length HT bolts with new ny-locks. Finished off by draining the diff , filling with new oil and then greasing the driveshafts

All that's left is to take the back wheels off, grease the rest of the suspension and take off the shock absorbers and clean them up and refill with new oil

I have just taken a spare drive shaft to pieces for one of our number .....

So for the record, there are 54 ball bearings, of 7mm diametre, running in 6 channels - therefore 9 per channel. This one is a bit tired but still works !

"Brake back plate touching on left hand bends" suggests to me some slack in the bearings or even between the bearing and the shaft rather than the need to replace the plate - unless it is flapping loose of course.   Some of my spare stub axles have been knurled in the distant past to take up the play...

I think there is a tiny bit of movement in the bearing . The main problem is that the backplate has been damaged over the years and is quite deformed and is too close to the drum. The lip of the plate has been flattened and no longer fits into the groove on the drum. I have sourced a brand new set of backplates which I hope to fit during the winter.

I took her for good run a couple of days ago and she took an age to warm up - it was very cold but dry and sunny, so it is not a surprise ! I needed full choke for a while, if not she kept coughing. So the other job is to tidy up the thermostat housing and fit the new 'stat as well.

Firstly, a happy and healthy New Year to everyone !

Warm and dry here today so I took the Aprilia out for a spin, lovely as always. Following the service/steering overhaul, there is more wheel wobble at about 50mph. I think that I have taken all the play out of the tired silent blocks and put thicker oil in the suspension, so the wobble is more easily felt - will have to have another go at balancing the (bent) front wheels .....

Then into the garage for the backplate replacement. It all came to pieces reasonably well except for a couple of the screws holding the backplate on. There are 6 in total, 5 around the stub axle and a 6th hidden between the shoe pivots. They had all been damaged at some time in the past and 2 were impossible to move so they had to be drilled out and a tap run through to clean up the threads.

The only other difficulty was removing the adjusting cams. The cams and nuts are drilled and pinned, but try as I might the pins wouldn't budge, so I had to drill those out as well. I will replace the pins with 3mm roll pins. You cannot use split pins because you need to be able to fit a spanner across the flats to adjust them

Interestingly, the Tavola shows the backplate in 2 pieces, the flat bit and a conical bit which collects any oil drips from the bearing. In reality it a single piece because the 2 are spot-welded together and the bottom edge of the cone looks to have been soldered to seal it. I have had to separate these because my new backplates consist of just the flat bits

The old backplate is badly deformed, the rim being completely flattened at the bottom, letting suspension oil and dirt creep around the edge .....

Just need to clean it all up, paint and refit - maybe tomorrow

Better late than never - pruning has taken preference this week. We have about 4,500 vines to do and we do not have electric secateurs - it's done the old fashioned way (by hand with traditional secateurs ) and each vine probably takes 1 1/2 minutes .....

This side is back together and just needs the brake-flexi refitting and then bleeding. Small correction to the last post, I have found another tavola that shows the backplate as a single piece instead of the plate plus conical bit - it comes from a second series book, so hence the difference.

On the same tavola, it shows a slightly different arrangement for the adjusters as well. On my car, the washer was on the inside of the drum, thus providing a reduced-friction surface. I have replaced the original fabric washer with a copper one. But on the tavola, the washer is on the outside , under the spring. I am sure my adjusters have not been taken to pieces before, there was no marking to suggest the pins had been removed before. So who knows ?

Bit of brake-bling - painting the wheel cylinders, daft maybe but, I know it's there ! A couple of other pictures showing it going back together.

I had to tap out the edges of the drum so that it didn't touch the new backplate and also there were a couple of cracks in the cooling fins where they had been bent. So I cut a "V" in the crack and added a bit of plastic-metal and repainted the drums in high temp paint.

Brake-flexi fitted and brakes bled. I like the coil spring that protects the pipe from potential abrasion, but it does make checking the condition of the pipes more difficult.

Bleeding the brakes is very much a one-man job on an Aprilia, so long as you haven't let the reservoir run dry. I tend to hold the plunger up during any work (using a clamp on the stem) and then put a rubber cap on the end of the copper pipe once it has been disconnected from the flexi. Then once it all goes back together, I use the plunger/piston to push the brake fluid back through the system - collecting it via a tube inserted into the bleed-valve, so as not to get fluid on your nicely painted backplates !

Quick sanity check with the brake pedal, adjust the shoes and all done !

Prompted by Brian's post on "the Aprilia Project" I replaced one of the front bumper rubbers (from Mic, thanks !). The repro rubbers are slightly different from the originals not sure if it is the same with those from Cavalitto, but the end sections are of a different section and are glued on. The inside of one needs trimming to fit the asymmetric frame. Otherwise they look very nice !

Couple of local LCF events coming up, so will be great to get the Aprilia out of the garage and do more than 30 miles.

22nd March local sortie and then another in the middle of May (date TBC) .Should be good shake-downs for our Italy trip in July. Not a Lancia do, but a week around Luca/Pisa having fun ! Jules is a bit worried about the heat .......

Simon, please reassure Jules that everything will be fine, Aprilias were designed and built to cope with the heat .......


                              Andy

We'll be over in Lucca/Pisa in April....but obviously not by vehicle....I must read over all your threads again Simon lots of nuggets, great pics and advice, thank you


P

....and cold and snow........ ;D........the Aprilia took 6 of the top 10 places in the recent Monte Carlo historique rally....1st, 2nd places too



P

Great day out on Saturday, a lunch for local Lancisti near Carcassonne.

Gerard Cassagnes is not organising the Rally de Roussillon for the first time in years , so there will be instead a couple of lunches - very French ! So at the weekend, 25 of us went to Chateau de Pennautier for a catch up. Very convivial ! A small turn out of machinery, weather a bit dodgy, but lunch was excellent - especially the veal tagine .....

2 integrales (both white), a pretty white Fulvia, a 4speed 2000 , a Belna and the Aprilia

Slight problem with the Aprilia, one of the front suspension units threw out all of its oil, so need to investigate

You'll soon have an Appia as an alternative...

David

Thanks David, but I think it will be a while yet .....

Anyway, I found a definite reason for the oil loss. A rubber joint at the top of the suspension unit had disintegrated and the union and aluminium sleeve had come loose. So the oil I was pumping in , wasn't and the oil already there was coming out as well. At least the underside of the wing isn't going to rust

A couple of detail pictures showing the area concerned. First one shows it stripped with the damper adjusting rod poking out , the second shows it nearly back together with a new copper washer replacing the rubber one. The top bolt has 2 sprung ball bearings fitted into the sides of the hex so you get a nice ratchet feel when you adjust the damper setting !

3rd picture is with it all back together and final one the back of the wheel cleaned up, because it was very dirty !

A lunch invite from Tim and Sarah Heath gave us a great excuse to take the Aprilia out and see their new house. We had a lovely lunch with aperos in the sunshine, 4 courses and then the village "Countries of the World" carnival that they had laid on, just for us !

I forgot my camera so hopefully Tim can upload a photo of the Aprilia, but we did get a picture of Mathilda on the "GB" float - between the Goth drummers and the "Leaning tower of Pizza" float. There was also Opel Kaddett based type 35 Bugatti (replica !)

Thanks Tim and Sarah !

It was a pleasure to host the Aprilia. Shame the drive couldn't be driven on due to setting concrete finish. Photos when I return from the Mega Gamma meet at Speyer. Time to fettle the gamma now....

I am pretty sure that I have a cracked leaf on the Aprilia rear spring so I am prepping another. The spring compressor is on its way (Thank you Ben) and the new spring is in bits

For the record, there are 9 leaves, released length is 745 mm (hanger-bolt centres) and the silent blocks are 18x34x36 mm. I have one spare silent block , but need another, if anyone can help !!

Spring being degreased ready for painting and re-assembly .......

Hi Simon, good old Robush Ltd!!!!

Silentblock  18 34 36 32, that is  ID, OD, IL, OL   They have 7 in stock at £4.60+VAT each. I am not sure about postage, especially to France.

I hope that is some help. Their number is 01473 738569.

They have always been very helpful and very quick and I would recommend them.

                                    Andy

Thanks Andy
They still have the note on the table following your call ! 4 on their way to France as we speak ...... (I only need 2 but I like to have spares on the shelf)

Spring ready for the silentblocs (power of the Forum) and then re-assembly

Leaves de-greased, de-rusted,and cleaned before a light etch and satin black. Very thin coats so as not to add any thickness to the leaves.

What is the best thing to use between the leaves when putting it back together ? My inclination is copperslip .......

On the top leaf there is a maker's mark which I cannot quite make out - "Lemoni" or "Temoin(i)" - Temoin in French is "witness" - is it a control mark ??

Also of interest is the damage caused by the spring covered bolts that help keep it together, wonder if this is a potential weak spot ?

There's an argument for the leaves to be dry and to rub as additional damping - however if it was me I'd copper slip.  Paint should be ok but I've heard of plating (on over restored vintage cars) making them brittle.

Some cars have interleaving. Phosphor bronze?  Aurelias?

http://www.triple-mregister.org/forums/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=6812&whichpage=1
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Leaf-Spring-Liner-with-Lip-1-3-4-Inch,2079.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaf_spring
http://www.suspensionspecialists.com/tech0003.html
http://www.heystee-automotive.com/parts/springs/what.htm
http://www.eatonsprings.com/techquestions/leaflinereffectonspringrate.htm

David

we've always used ordinary grease , seems to work well and doesn't really dry out, I have also used black waxoil on the outside as paint generally cracks on spring leaves with movement, also (not trying to make you suck eggs) but if there is any wear on the spring leaves from the next smaller leave , grind it out with a sanding disk as this becomes a weak point for the spring to break, if ground even though essentially the spring is thinner there is no sudden variation in thickness which causes failure

I would also suggest wrapping up the greased spring - perhaps with something like duct tape (cheaper than tailor made leather gaiters).

Simon, do not forget, as I did when reassembling the B20 rear springs, that the through bolt, which clamps on the inner steel part of the bush should not be tightened unloaded, ie whilst the car is jacked up. Don recommended for the Appia that it be done with part dead load on it whilst Clive Beattie, in his book '55 Years of Dirty Hands' suggests full dead load. Jim went with the latter stating that the live load and driving loads would be  additional loading meaning that at rest the bush is hopefully somewhere around mid range for stress on the rubber.

I hope that makes sense.

                                   Andy

Similar to clamping the silent blocks of a fulvia.

Thank you for your comments , gents

The only significant marks on the leaves are the coil spring marks in the photo. I am not sure whether it is best to grind these out or not , I will probably leave them . There are a few rust pits as well.
The paint used was a thin coat of my usual satin black acrylic, because I don't want any extra thickness on the leaves, and it should be flexible enough not to crack - will let you all know !

Similarly, I am not sure about covering the spring in tape. I think I would rather keep an eye on it and clean everything from time to time.

Andy, I think it makes sense ! The Aprilia spring is different to Aurelia springs because it is a single transverse spring, pivoted in the middle, so there should not be too much stress on the rubber so long as it is clamped up when the spring hangs equally like an "n" from the centre. Will post pics when I do it.

Still not sure if it is grease or copperslip, will probably decide on the day - Black waxoyl is a good tip !

The delightful Colin and Marcella delivered the spring compressor today, it is so heavy their Alfa spider touched its exhaust coming into the drive.

As a thank you , and as a great way to meet new friends, we went out for lunch in the Aprilia ! So .......

Aprilia Lunch
Restaurant Anais in Ginestas
Cream of veg soup
Chinese roast chicken on cucumber and pineapple salad
Meringue nest with lemon sorbet and red fruits
Wine and coffee

I was thinking of making a copy of the spring compressor, but it is severely substantial and beyond my welder's capacity, so maybe need to rethink !

It looks agricultural...you are surrounded by farmland...there MUST be someone with the grandmother of all mahoosive arc welders within a few minutes for the welding, and I bet they have a big power hacksaw as well, and if not in a rush could make a copy at a "time filler" rate.

David

David, will be pursuing the "agricultural" option ....

Our village fete today and there was a "classic car" show which we crashed ..... well 10 cars from a local club and the Aprilia. I gave Mathilda the camera to record the event and this is what we got , apart from the picture which I took of the Aprilia in front of the school, alongside a "Licorne" (Unicorne) from the 1920's.

Her list included a Dauphine, Peugeots 404,504, Mini , Traction 11, Morgan 4 Wheeler (indeed M managed to spot the sliding pillars !) and her best friend selling plants he had grown ....plus someone who was selling rabbits - to eat !

Gathering of the southern Lancisti at Chateau Cabezac - for us it is almost too local, the engine didn't even get warm ..... but good company and enjoyable lunch

Not everyone came in a Lancia, but it is always interesting to see an R5 Turbo 2 especially lined up next to a Zagato. The Guilia Super really was super, unrestored and only the door bottoms repainted. The owner has had 2 nasty bumps in the last 10 months, a Fulvia which was side swiped and a 2000 which was T boned. Very unfortunate because they are both borderline repairable and neither his fault.(if anyone has a good 2000 bonnet ?)

I have a particular soft-spot for this particular Alfa, I had one when I was 19 and I have very fond memories of it !

Mike Jennings arrived in his BMW and there was also lovely B21, which I have not seen before. He has fitted Renault Frigate rear lights which I am not entirely sure about if I am honest.

Finally a lovely picture of Mathilda and a couple of her Lancia friends in the back of the Aprilia - hopefully they will make up the next generation of Lancisti !

Mini service before mini-break !

Mathilda (9 yrs) disappeared off on a school trip for 3 days so Jules and I took advantage and headed west. Firstly a quick check over - new gasket made for header tank, shutters fixed open (very hot and dry here) , driveshafts greased, prop couplings checked (!!!!) oil levels topped up etc etc.

The spring picture shows the broken leaf which I will change next week, also the original type grease-gun

First stop was Castelnaudary, famous for "Cassoulet" a bean based stew with confit de canard, saucisse and various parts of pig. Sounds terrible but actually delicious, especially in the winter ...

It is also a significant port on the Canal du Midi. Picture of the Aprilia on the old bridge , built 1680 ish. Nice place for a short stop and a beer

We stayed overnight at a Chambre d'Hotes (with Table d'Hotes) just outside the town. Very pleasant place to stay - "Chateau Coquelicot" . Delightful Belgian owners , lovely food, perfume inspired rooms and fields of sunflowers outside the windows.

"I wonder how Mathilda is doing ?" asks Juliet. "Mathilda - who ?" replies Simon ......

Next day was a fantastic run through the Black Mountains, stopping at Saissac, the site of a wonderful castle and ancient small town. Followed by further fabulous, empty roads to Caunes Minervois for lunch. Just a short hop back home.

Driving along roads like this you realise just how good Aprilias are. Our roads are bumpy and rutted, filled with "nids de poules" - literally hen's nests , or less imaginatively, pot-holes. Aprilias soak them up, easily keeping up with modern traffic - we even overtook some of them. But then again, it was a Peugeot 205 diesel with a farmer and his wife having a row !

I think it should be mandatory for every Lancia-lover to drive an Aprilia, it is like a driving a pre-war Integrale ... only more fun (polite replies only please !)

So, new spring, new driveshaft couplings (going to try a set of those developed by Ben) and minor fettling before Italy next month

Just divine Simon........sounds utterly blissful........


P

Quote,
I think it should be mandatory for every Lancia-lover to drive an Aprilia, it is like a driving a pre-war Integrale ... only more fun (polite replies only please !)

Chance would be a fine thing :(
I recognise the photo of the Canal du Midi as I've one from close by taken with my Dedra back in 1995.

Brian
8227 8)

Absolutely agree!!  and I'e overtaken quite a few Cumbrians in my Aprilia.

Finally got around to replacing  the rear spring this weekend. A friendly garage-ist lent me his lift for a night/morning for a few quid and a couple of bottles of wine.

Apologies for the number of photos, but I don't think anyone has written up an Aprilia spring change for a while

Firstly, the correct tool is essential, I have changed one before without it, but it was hairy and difficult, at one point requiring several people to sit on the back seat to release the tension on the cables - the folly of youth !

Lift the car and remove the rear wheels
Undo and remove the 4 nuts holding the brackets on the central silentblocs (if not the tool saddle fouls them and they cannot be removed)
Block the action of the torsion bars by wedging a chunk of wood between the bumpstop and the trailing arm
Fit the tool and tension it
Support the tool/spring
Continue to tension the spring until the wire hangers begin to flex
Remove the 17 mm greasers (nuts) from the side of the trailing arm and gently tap the central peg towards the centre of the car. If the spring is sufficiently flat the peg will withdraw, if not continue tension it further.
Once the pegs are out , lower the spring
Once on the floor, the tool is unwound and removed

In the end I found 2 leaves broken, both shorter leaves where the end 3 inches had snapped off

The above took a couple of hours, however the thing that took most time was making sure that the car was safe and correctly supported on its jacking points before lifting !

Once the spring was off, it took a couple more hours to remove, clean, check and paint the hangers and associated bits. Interestingly, on one of the bearings located at the end of the spring, the central tube had shattered, so the bearing needed to be replaced. Fortunately I had a new one ! I also replaced one of the wire hangers because there was the vaguest hint of wire damage

The following morning I put the painted bits back together and went back to the garage and then, as they say, to refit is a reversal of the above !

I took her for drive along one of my favourite testing roads, lots of undulations and bumps, tight corners ,long straights and she was lovely, no harshness, nice and supple. She sits about an inch higher and looks better poised !

more pictures

You did well, Simon.  Years ago I had a 1959 250GT Ferrari which has half elliptic rear springs.  The eyes on the left hand one were siezed on their hangers.  Fortunately I had been warned that these springs, when released, curl up something horrible and if you did not know could easily knock you out.  At the least.  I got around the problem of a spring spreader by borrowing one from a friend who had one he had used for a Model T Ford.

This was simply a substantial centre piece made of two parallel lengths, each end closed by a welded and internally threaded end.  In other words a ruddy great turnbuckle where in either end is inserted a screwed rod, one right and one left hand thread.  The outer end of each formed as a chisel which engaged under the spring end.  Rotating the centre part thus increases or decreases the length of the device equally either end and meant I could reduce the tension quite accurately to take the force off the spring and worry about unsiezing the eye.  That took another ten days.

And if you make your own spreader, substantial is the word.  Oh and don't buy an early Ferrari, they rot.

Good job Simon.
Just wondering why you put the wood blocks in 'tho. Could you not let the torsion bars relax to their neutral position? You would certainly have had to if you had wanted to remove them at the same time.

Ben, not sure if the tool could "over-flatten" the spring which I think it would need to do if you don't block the trailing arms. Plus if the trailing arms are solid, the hanger pins are easier to remove. The wires are slack and the arms don't move.

I'm sure you could leave out the blocks, but I didn't try !

Final prep for Italy next week. Spring done , new 'Ben-style' couplings and iPod charger (!) to fit later today and final check over and spares box to do.

Can anyone help with a place to stay on Thursday night ? I am looking for a cheapish hotel with parking and not too far from the autoroute. I aim to reach the area between Menton (France) and Genoa

Thanks

The alternative to an IPod charger in the car:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/10000mAh-Portable-PowerIQTM-Technology-USB-charged-Black/dp/B0063AAIRG/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1405797779&sr=8-11&keywords=usb+battery+pack

Re iPod charger, I bought a discrete and remote cigar socket on a wire , with an inline fuse .It is wired direct to the battery. No holes or anything permanent , then it tucks neatly inside the glove box and can be removed when I get back from holiday

Next job was the replacement of the prop couplings. The originals are fabric sandwiches with metal inserts. With time, the fabric softens and flexes. Mine appeared sound and are clean and solid. However I did get some prop vibration above 55 mph, so when Ben Courage developed a modern solution, I thought I'd give them a try !

The 3 new couplings are aluminium discs with silentblocks set into holes. There is the option to offset the depth of the silentblocks giving some thickness adjustment. They arrived with 3 silentblocks protruding by approx 2 mm to one side and the other 3 alternate holes protruding 2mm on the other side.

I replaced them all at the same time, loosely tightening the gearbox and diff couplings and then measuring the gap on the middle one. I found that there was an initial 7-10 mm gap on the middle coupling so, turned two of them around, increasing their offset and this was enough to remove the gap. Once everything was tightened, central bearing greased and put back together it was time for a road-test

Initial impressions are favourable - much less prop vibration over 50 mph and overall feels smoother. They took quite a while to fit correctly, 2-3 hours in total, but if they carry on like this, it was worth it. A 1500 mile trip will test them out and I shall report back !

Other jobs today included checking and setting the headlights and replacing the top hose gasket - again ! Tiny leak which is very irritating because the engine gets dirty ! I have shimmed the shutters so they are open all the time and made the switch for the dash lights work - lots of detail to hopefully make the trip more comfortable

Couple more bits tomorrow, a good clean and then ready to go .....

Today was putting together a spares box and toolkit.

But , what to take ? What is a reasonable spares kit ? Easy to go mad, so I have taken the following:

Spare distributor (complete)
Extra points
Extra condensor
Plug extensions
Packet of assorted fuses, electrical connectors etc
Length of wire
Coil
Brushes - dynamo and starter motor
Regulator
Starter switch
Bulbs
Water pump
Set of prop couplings and bolts
Driveshaft bearings x 4
Packet of assorted nuts/bolts etc
Cable ties and reel insulation tape
Fuel filter
Steering silentblocs
Wire hanger
Inner tube

Tools:

Full set spanners (2x14)
Selected sockets
Screwdrivers
Grease gun (full !)
Suspension oiler
Tyre lever
Pliers x 2
Plug socket
Original jack and Starting handle
Small bottle jack

Other:

1/2l 20-60 oil
1/2l EP 90 oil
1.5l Rad coolant
Lead replacement liquid for 500l
Fire extinguisher
First aid kit
Warning triangles (2) and jacket
Rags
Rubber gloves
Torch
Gasket goo

You can't carry everything, but hopefully you have enough to get to the next garage .......

Should you include a head gasket? Valve spring ? Where do you stop ?

Suggestions appreciated !



  

Good grief, are you doing the Peking to Paris?    I just carry a small socket and spanner set in a neat box from Aldi.  Never had anything major break on the road (if you don't count the rusted rear suspension retaining wires but they should last another 70 years now).   Aprilias are tough little cars so if you have prepared it properly (and you have) you should not worry so much!   Otherwise, why not a set of big end bearings? - would have come in useful on Boot when the oil pump failed in Fobello a few years ago (but DHL had them there next day).   Seriously, cannot see distributor failing but replaceables fair enough and steering bushes always a good idea.  my head and valve gear are all new (Cavallito 1970 and waiting many years to be fitted) so I do not expect the head gasket to go - an Aprilia is not a Lambda and has a sensible number of head studs.

With a smart phone, forum and express couriers you're not going to be in much trouble for long. 

If you were really organised have "repair kit five" (etc etc) wrapped ready for dispatch on command...

...or the whole lot in a box marked "I told you so".

David

Simon it’s pleasing to see someone almost as paranoid as me. I’d include a top and bottom radiator hose, they’re quite small, jumper leads, section of fuel hose and an assortment of hose clamps. Of course the number of spares and tools you carry is inversely proportional to the number of bottles of wine you can bring home!
Noel

Simon and Noel, I am right up there with you ...... I would add brake fluid, bitter experience that one!!

Yes, there are mobile phones and express couriers etc etc, but nothing gets better than a challenge by the roadside overcome!!  I had a Volvo that in which the timing would drift so the timing strobe was always carried. My wife was not impressed when I decided that, with her and four children under 12 years and fully loaded after a 2 week holiday, that it was necessary to 'do the timing'. It did stop the pinking though. Then there was an unscheduled clutch cable change in Brighton on a visit to friends. I did know the cable was getting tired, I did not carry a spare as a matter of course!!! I always travel on long journeys in old clothes in the expectation that I may well end up at some point under the bonnet or under the car!!!   

Be prepared, not a bad motto even though I am a tad too old to be a Scout, or indeed a Scout leader for that matter!!!

                                                       Andy

Couldn't you just take a 2nd car along a few hundred metres behind like Clarkson did, a ropey old Beetle or somesuch to "annoy" your pride and joy into not breaking down......;)


OR get that lot couriered to you when you do breakdown......;)

P

Assume in extremis you have built in recovery insurance to your classic car policy???

My favorite Aprilia journey was Conte Bonzi's 1937 trip to Afghanistan and back. The full account was published in Viva Lancia 410 August 2002. How he managed to completely strip and rebuild one of the front suspension units beside the road is unbelievable. I've copied the letter he wrote to Lancia on his return.
Noel

Noel, a feeling of inadequacy is creeping over me ......  Maybe I should be a little more adventurous!!

I wonder what their spares and tools lists looked like?

                         Andy

What I have used roadside, which would complement your toolkit  

Volt meter
Jubilee clips various sizes
Clear pipe for syphoning and fuel delivery  

For those long jobs a sleeping bag, I almost forgot the kitchen sink

Soft iron wire, electrical tape, duck tape, self amalgamating tape, string, twine, rope.

Knife, scissors, plasters, bandages.

I nice big soft mat to lie on.  When under the bonnet to lend to the passengers to soften the wall they are sitting on.

David

I hate sleeping in cars an the Aprilia doesn't get any more comfortable with time and I certainly do not get any more flexible

Had an excellent run down here, and very glad I drove late evening/ early morning, the section from Nice to La Spezia is hard work for an old car, some of the hills are long grinds . 3 rd gear and 60 kph for a couple of sections ( lot of wine on board). Wouldn't be too much fun with lorries up your bum !

Currently holed up in a delightful " old school" hotel in Bagni di Lucca, opposite the Casino where apparently the Roulette wheel was invented/ first used

Seen so far , 8v integrale , 2 Fiat 500's and a lovely 500 giardinetta and loads of newer Lancias

Just back after an "interesting" trip to Italy, celebrating my sister's 25th wedding anniversary  Some of the most atrocious weather I have seen for years !

Very good run down to Lucca but the next day the rain started and my wiper motor packed up - the problem is that I have had the Aprilia for a couple of years and only used the wipers twice !!! So I had no idea that there was a potential problem. I stripped the motor on the kitchen table but no joy, so before we headed off to San Gimignano for the blessing, I needed a solution because it was POURING down.

Girls to the rescue, my sister gave me her bra straps and Juliet her bikini strings. They were attached to the wipers and in through the windows so J could operate the wipers as we were driving. They are nice and soft and did not to damage the paintwork, but we both had blisters from operating them !

The Aprilia always causes a stir wherever we go, but people were jumping out in front of us to take photos and congregating whenever we stopped, but most surprisingly very few knew what kind of Lancia she is. Talking to Chris Gawne later in the week, he said the same of the Aurelia and people recognise their Fulvia much more readily.

Beautiful roads and countryside but the Italians really do like the centre of the road, even on blind corners, so RHD is very useful for getting as far over as possible !

Before setting off on the return journey, I did a quick service - oiled and greased everything. I had to remove and empty the water from the headlights and tighten one driveshaft coupling which had started to come loose and will need new nylocks when she is back in the garage

On the way back, I went via Padova to deliver/collect some spares with Chris and Jackie Gawne (and spent a delightful evening with them - Thanks again!)

The trip back was eventful, horrendous thunderstorms , near Lake Garda people were pulling off onto the hard shoulder to hide. I kept going until the distributor got so wet I was only running on 2 cylinders. The aquaplaning was evil, even with narrow tyres and the thunder so load it made you jump.

I was forced to stop again near Genoa where I reset the points, changed the rotor arm and cap , but eventually made it home after 15.5 hours driving and covering 1050kms.

The only other problems I had were blocked jets in the carb and points that started to close up. So she was running a bit rough when I finally pulled into the drive

I still need to summarise the petrol and oil consumption but reckon I have done about 3000 kms this week, not bad for a 67 year old. She is allowed to be tired, I am, and I'm only 49 !

Photo 1
iPad mounting
Photo 2
Devil's Bridge near Lucca
Photo 3
Hotel Corona, Bagni di Lucca
Photo 4
In front of the gates to Lucca
Photo 5
San Gininiano
Photo 6
Wiper modification
Photo 7
Shades of Green
Photo 8
Celebrating with friends and family
 

Simon...that was epic.....if I had a medal to hand I would award it to you without further ado!

Lucca is gorgeous, was over there in March.

Great you got back and did your Aprilia. and Lancia proud


P

What a great adventure! and I loved the makeshift wiper mechanism! however if you've never given it a try I can recommend Rain X, although you need to re apply it fairly frequently it works well without depriving the female members of your family of there underwear support ;D

Brian
8227 8)

Brilliant Simon, juliet and sister. Where there's a will there's a way.

Glad it all went well in the end and you had a great family bash. It all makes me even more determined to get the B20 sorted.

                         Andy

PS in an emergency a potato is not a bad alternative to Rainex, so I am told!!

Simon 'rain X'd' his windscreen whilst here but the rain was  torrential and it only has a certain ;ife. I had forgotten how unique the Aprilia exhaust note is as Jacky and I heard him coming (from the front) well before he arrived and when he departed on Sunday morning going down our valley. we could hear him for what must have been 2 km or so. Lovely.
Chris

What a memorable trip! The bikini wipers are fantastic. I've heard too that a cut potato smeared on the screen would help but I don't suppose you'd packed many potatoes in your luggage. As Chris says, with that kind of rain, nothing is going to last long. I have fond memories of camping at Lake Garda and then further down and visiting some of these places in the Fulvia. I seem to remember that at Maranello the landscape changed suddenly from flattish to the classic hilly poplar covered Italy we think of with beautiful roads to match. Lancia driving country. Apart from the wiper motor, sounds like a pretty successful shake down run.

Thank you for your comments and Mic, I have been in touch with Vintage Supplies who may be able to supply a temporary solution.

I have stripped and cleaned the motor and have identified the offending part. As suspected it is a damaged bakelite cog - the one driven directly off the motor. There are only 3 damaged teeth but it's enough. The rest of the mechanism is perfect.

So either a new cog or get a watch/clock maker to remake it - any suggestions ?

Just a thought Simon, Does the cog rotate through 360 degrees or does it only work on that particular section, if so is it possible to reposition the spindle 180 degrees on to a fresh section?

Brian
8227 8)

Or invert it?

Perhaps the central mounting could be modified to bring an undamaged section into play as Brian's suggested by another means.

Photo?

(Update - sorry, just saw the photos posted earlier. Having looked at the (6-lobed drive to the offending wheel, It looks as if it needs its whole circumference to be in good condition to operate properly.

On the other hand, why is the damage all in one sector? Perhaps because there is a greater torque load at the point the wipers change direction? So if the wheel were mounted 180, or 120 degrees from its original position, you might find that it works again.

Another thought. Can the clearance between the two cogs be adjusted? Perhaps reducing the axial distance between the two wheels by some means would mean normal operations were resumed?)

Thank you for your thoughts, the only problem is that the cog cannot be inverted due to the other small cog above it. The cog spins in one direction around its whole circumference, so there is not one section that takes more wear. There is a tiny bit of movement on the motor shaft but without major remachining it is not possible to reduce it.

I think that the damage has been caused by a wiper blocking or over centre-ing and forcing the mechanism. Once I have the new bits I can check all of this

The simplest thing is to find/make a new cog.

I have also invested in a new motor that I can modify to fit (keeping the original set up) and then have as a running spare

If you can get both cogs made from steel it would be a lifetime solution. Unless it's possible to make a mould and remake in a hard plastic/nylon?

Epic!!

I've a memory of Tim Burret persisting with original Aurelia wiper motors and doing something with gears...

David

Plans afoot re gears, but not a quick fix. In the short term I will need to remachine the Vintage supplies motor, both the thread and spindle are too big and too long to retain the standard Lancia wipers

Few stats following the trip:

2600 km (1625 miles)
220 l petrol (49 gals)
1 l antifreeze
1.2 l (2.1 pints) engine oil

= 33 mpg or 8.6 L/100km

Mixed driving conditions and speeds. Lots of hills and heat so overall, not bad !

A couple of points. Wasn't the potato solution for anti misting on the inside of the windscreen. I can't imagine it would last very long at all on the outside in the rain.

About that cog wheel. Unless an original replacement is available I would certainly look at making one in a more durable material. As was said, a watch or clock repairer could do it as could any lathe operating engineer or a model engineer. However, sometimes when you think you know better than the original manufacturer you discover later that they knew exactly what they were doing and why.

It is possible that the original cog is made of fibre precisely so it is a sacrificial component that will give way before something else is damaged.

If remaking the cog, nylon and similar materials can be machined so casting would probably be an over complicated solution. If using metal I would consider possibly making one out of brass or similar. The headlight wipers on the Dedra had steel cog wheels. Once the spindle rubbers got a bit old and ceased to seal properly the wiper mechanism filled up with water and the cogs rusted into a single solid lump. That's why you don't see Dedras with headlamp wipers any more. (although rust may be why you just don't see Dedras any way  any more).

Frank

My 1990 Dedra 2.0iese had the headlamp problem Frank refers to, but my 1994 LS had high powered jets instead and much more useful.

Brian
8227 8)

Looking again at your pictures, might you be able to build up the missing teeth with epoxy resin and file them back to the correct profile?

Nothing is really lost if it fails again.

Frank

Thanks Frank
I had thought of that and will try it.

I have also bought a small hobby lathe and some tufnel so will try and make a new gear as well. I will share my experiences - which may be "interesting" since I have never used a lathe before !

I have done a bit of playing about with a hobby lathe (Unimat SL) but to do gears you need an indexing attatchment or dividing head. Also I think you would need the right profile gear cutters to get the teeth to the right profile, although I am sure proper lathe operators make their own lathe tools.

Frank

I think you will find it will pay to get a skilled engineer to make the gear(s) for you, rather than try yourself if you have never even used a lathe before. It would be running before you can walk! Good luck, anyway.
Regards, John

I pointed him at this and a few similar:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gears-Gear-Cutting-Workshop-Practice/dp/0852429118/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408639639&sr=8-1&keywords=gear+cutting

Of course buying a lathe isn't going to be the quick and easy solution, but its an asset for many tasks and for many a hobby in itself.

David

A "dividing head" might be a change wheel from the lathe on a face plate with some fixture with a bolt sharpend to a point to lock it.

Can improvise "a shaper", with a sharp tool or a file.  Could hold a dremel as a "tool post grinder".

I do not own a a lathe and do not know how to use one. However, I do have a little experience in having gears cut.

When I was running my B20 in the mid seventies the windscreen wipers decided to try to mate in the middle of the screen in a heavy rainstorm. This was due to the gears in the individual gearboxes, made of a poor quality alloy, having stripped several teeth. At that time there was an Aurelia Consortium run by Anthony Smallhorn, but there were no replacement gears available, despite them being a known problem. I investigated having gears made, but there was a distinct lack of machine shops that were prepared/able to undertake the task!! Eventually I found a place in Romford, 25miles distant, but they would only undertake the gear cutting, I had to use a local machine shop to undertake the finishing. The surplus gears were bought by the Consortium, which by that time had been taken over by Omicron.

So, it seems that even many machine shops baulk at the task of gear cutting, regarding it as a specialist area.

Good luck with it, for the few teeth affected I would be tempted to try a repair as the first option.

                                                Andy

Thanks for your comments and apologies for being quiet for so long !

For us this is the busiest time of the year, holidays with a myriad of visitors, winery to finish, Ercole to prepare, etc etc

Briefly, the Aprilia is back up to speed, carb stripped and cleaned after the trip. The filter was filthy and needed replacing. I thought dirty petrol was a thing of the past but apparently not ! The slow running jet was caked solid and the drillings needed clearing as well.

The new prop-couplings worked very well, but I did have to replace the bolts and nylocks on one driveshaft and tighten the gearbox output shaft bolt (not standard and therefore not split split-pinned). Good job I checked everything over after the trip

I have been trying out some test pieces on the lathe, but with everything else it is a luxury I do not have much time for .....

The Ercole has finally come over to the garage/workshop and been readied for vendange.

First thing was to remove the cab so she is a proper motorbike again, the noise inside was unbelievable ! Not a 5 minute job.

She has needed relined front shoes, wheel bearings stripped, cleaned and regreased. Fork legs rewelding, clutch freeing off, new cables, rewired front end, stripped and cleaned dampers and so on. I have added a couple of pictures for fun , but will probably start an Ercole blog on a non-Lancia forum

Finally, when Dog is not painting motor cars, he is wheeled into action to paint winery machines - all hands on deck !

Hi Simon

That is just not fair, think we should have the Ercole refurb as well as the Lancias as just so enjoyable to follow!

Peter

Peter, I agree wholeheartedly!!

Simon, apart from a length of 4x2 to hold the it up, how does the tipper mechanism work?

                       Andy

Simon,
I don't know whether I mentioned this when we met recently but Ercole seem to be quite sought after in N Italy. There are always a few fully restored one for sale on subito.it or similar for quite high prices. Spare parts seem to also be available.
There is one in pretty good condition locally to us which is still in regular use some 45 or more years after being built.
Keep us informed as to your progress and surely the wine from the grapes which have been transported on the Ercole will taste even better!
Chris

What a great machine! Almost looks WW2 German military in that third photo.

I'm hoping the saddle is well sprung.   

Three wheels is all well and good on a smooth road but down a well worn track with a grassy and lumpy hump in the middle?   

David 

Photos of the hydraulic lift for Andy - in the first picture there is the reservoir with the actuating lever to the left of the saddle. The pump is under the frame. Second picture shows 2nd of 3 stage hydraulic ram.

I took her up to the vines today, and as you can see we have drought conditions, even the weeds can't survive. We are organic so no weed killer has been used, just a hoe and a plough ....
The seat is very comfy and well sprung ..... the wheel in the middle is not a problem because the machine is narrow and you can have front and one rear in a rut and the other rear on the ridge. It is however the daftest thing I have piloted for some time, only your right foot is redundant - Chris DO buy one, they make you and everyone else smile !

Tomorrow's job is to fit the rotating turret and machine gun ......

Last picture is of a delightful little sprung hand-wagon that I found in a barn. Good basis for an Aprilia special ?

Bloody brilliant .... all of it!!!!!!

                      Andy

Am GREATLY relieved it goes down the track ok. 

David

The little trailer is in Panzer grey too! Hook it on the back for your bread, cheese and wine lunch (or ammo for the MG). There's an amazing number of these strange little carts still being used around France. I call them 'refugee carts' because they always remind me of the old films of people streaming towards Dunkerque etc. You've certainly collected some great bits and pieces.

Enough for a Museum ;)

Brian
8227 8)

Have an idea for hooking it onto the back of my bike ......

Finally finished the mods on the replacement wiper motor in between more jobs on the Ercole and plumbing in a new heating/cooling system for the wine tanks.

Ultimately, I turned down a piece of steel rod (terrible first photo, sorry !)to fit through the existing hole on the bodywork under the windscreen, turned a flange on it so that it would sit neatly on the new motor's baseplate, leaving another section to go through the existing hole where it could be peened to hold it all in place (I cut off the original threaded tube because it was too wide for the bodywork).
The rod was then reamed to take the turned down spindle from the new motor, then the rod was threaded. Final job was to cut down a metric fine nut so that the wiper arm does not sit too far off the screen.

It would have been so much quicker just to have bored out the original hole by 1.5 mm, but then my original motor will not fit properly. I will not share with you how long it all took .......

It works nicely and just needs to be fitted along with the repainted wiper arms. Please excuse the before and after shots, but the arms took an age to clean and you can see the lovely brass bits in the "before" picture !

PS as an Ercole buying tip for Chris - check the front forks, they seem prone to fatigue ! I got a nasty steering wobble driving home yesterday and discovered yet more cracks and broken plates on the forks. They had obviously been repaired before ( see iron bar attachments !) but after some TLC should be OK for a while longer. Picture of the front brake shows how simple they are ......

Can you expand on the peening?   How thick, how tall, how scared clobbering all that work with a hammer...?

David

Peening - very scared, but done carefully ! I left about .7 mm thickness and a length of 8mm. Slid a suitably sized pin punch down the sleeve and the cone at the top of the punch formed the initial flare , then I tapped down and peened the rest using a smaller punch. Seems very sold !

Ercole used as intended today, worked well .... we only picked 110 kgs of grapes to make a bit of rose, but also to start a ferment. This will produce some CO2 which we will use to protect the rest of the grapes when we pick them later this week. More later if there is any interest .... ancient press found in a barn functions well, but needs some muscle !

I'm happy to hear more wine making tales as you progress. I'm intrigued by the whole thing. Also love drinking it! Do you have rose bushes at the end of your vines do give warning of disease like some vineyards?

Is that a 2CV in the background?   Looks like a Mehari.

A similar car to the Mehari, on Renault R4 basis? Rodeo 4 perhaps?

rodeo is correct!

David, actually it is the lesser, rarer Renault 4 based "Rodeo" (1972) - a fraction of the price, less pretty but arguably more usable.

Built-in obsolescence - plastic body, steel chassis, holes in but no holes out .......

Back to Aprilias - finally fitted the new wiper motor. It is a tight fit due to the slightly taller motor cover and built in switch. The electrical connection is on the other side so to make life easier I added a short extension and clamped it to the original feed

All works well, 110° arc is spot on for my wipers (one has been shortened slightly so it doesn't foul the rubber). With everything cleaned and lubricated, there is reasonable pressure on the blades but a new spring on the passenger side would improve things further.

Last thing was to fit a thicker (copper) washer on the driver's side to take up some of the wear.

Now I have wipers again, I can concentrate on remaking the original cog and rebuilding the old wiper motor.

Sorry it is all so dusty/grubby , but we have water restrictions - indeed today we have NO water .....

Thought I'd strike while the iron's hot - CT (MOT) passed this afternoon !! An oil leak on the engine, very slight unbalance on rear brakes (adjust next time the spare wheel is out of the boot) and that's about it .....

I am aiming to import her fully this year, so since she is still on a UK V5 I can only have a 2 year CT but once she is registered here as Vehicule de Collection the next time I do the CT it will become a 5 year check.

As an aside, my CT centre has also offered to do all the paperwork for the new Carte Grise (V5) for free (I just pay the registration tax) - how cool is that ! Stanley, I don't know if it is a France-wide thing but could be useful in the future ??

The CT proof now resides alongside the insurance vignette - nearly there !
 

Congratulations after all your hard work! It's a nice feeling to know you can now tinker at leisure for two years. I hadn't heard about the free paperwork thing I must admit but will bear it in mind if I ever import another car. When I first registered my Fulvia here as a Vehicule de Collection I also received a thick pad of travel passes. I could travel in my region and all adjoining regions without problems. But if I wanted to go further afield I had to fill out a chitty in advance and send it off somewhere to give notice of my journey. This was scrapped a while later and I never had to use it as to be honest my region and the surrounding ones add up to a huge area!

My local Marie did the paperwork for my Delta purchase to change the V5. They asked me to send a blank cheque as they did not quite know what CV class the car was. No worries as I was warned and 167 eu was duly deducted from my bank account as estimated.

My delta has just crossed the 25 year threshold for voiture de collection but I wonder what paperwork and further tax is involved to make the change?

Our Mairie will not do it and when asked ,looked as if I had asked to de-flower Marianne ....





(ps Marianne is the symbol of La République as seen on stamps, coins etc !!!)

Maybe you should have got the lady in the house to ask?? (as I did). :D

Tim, here's the link to the organisation I had to go through. A bit hazy now but I think I downloaded forms from here and sent them back, then take whatever they send you to the local prefecture. Can't remember the fee but don't have any horrendous memories so must have been OK.

http://www.ffve.org/

Thanks Stan

Seems a bit confusing as to whether the vehicle needs to be 30 years old....I had thought 25???

Tim

Are they saying 25 years if it was at least 25 years old before before October 15 2009, cars after that need to be 30?

Just going through the process with the Appia as well and FFVE currently says "at least 30 Yrs old"

Re petrol pumps, the new one I have fitted to the Appia looks as if it would fit an Aprilia as well - depending on the set up you have. My set up has spigots not banjos so cannot be 100% sure. However, I did offer it up to an early set up (with filter) and it seems to fit. Be worth looking at especially since they look the part and resist the increased pressure of an inline, low pressure, electric pump ..... should you have one

Lastly, at a local B&Q type place today , there was a 1902, UK reg "White" steam car !!!! No car rally, he seemed to be doing his shopping !

Bravo !

The White Steam car is probably my neighbour's in Saint Nazaire d'aude! Apparently his friend from Cornwall is visiting with his steam car. I am flying out tomorrow to hope to see them both....

Wallet, car keys, phone, top hat..............

And umbrella...

Nope! Roof installed...on the French Car

No more steam cars ..... Aprilia maintenance today .... and a bit of rocker-porn for David

After cleaning the carb I still had a slight misfire and therefore decided to reset the timing because I last did it by guesswork at the side of the road in the rain !

I have had problems with a coil on an Aprilia before which gave a characteristic misfire especially when hot, so first thing was to fit a new one - a Lucas Sport coil (£23 delivered) but it was gold in colour so I rubbed it down and painted it black.

Once that was on, I started her up and checked the timing with a strobe. I couldn't see the timing mark suggesting that it was a bit advanced (the mark hidden by bell housing). Next was take the rocker cover off and check all OK and clean/gap the plugs.
The plugs on an Aprilia sit in a puddle of oil (one reason they sometime misfire if a head gasket has gone and there is water in the oil) and the "problem" is that when you remove the plugs a good glug of oil drops into the bore and causes the plug to foul or smoke when you come to restart.
Something I had not tried before was to suck the oil out of the well with a large syringe - seemed to work !
I am running NGK BP5HS and they seem perfect for my use, nice dark grey on inspection

Next was to remove the distributor, strip, clean, regrease , new condensor and points and re-assemble. A possible cause of misfire could also have been a small crack in the square insulator plate (LH one in the picture), but anyway it will not have helped.

I have been running with replacement plug extenders for several years (made by Omicron) and can recommend them. They are not 100% visually correct, but I think they look very acceptable and they work well. There is a plug-extender-chronology-picture which shows the very early type (please correct me) which just has the wire screwed onto the top followed by the 2 piece red type and then the later single piece black type. Final one is the "Omicron" style , with brass rod and separate top piece. Modified leads screw into this. The originals can be a pain because on the later types , cracks and condensation can cause misfiring. I have never used the early type.

With the strobe, the timing is at 1 tooth more advanced than standard (13° BTDC), but she starts very easily and no pinking and drives beautifully around the village, but I will have to wait and see how it is when I do a proper test - started to rain,  typical !

Hope you liked the rocker gear .....

I'm almost as excited as Simon was when he realised I had the original Autocar artwork for a sectioned Aprilia engine in the spare room.  When I get a chance I'll take some pictures of it to post here - and for Jack.

The early type plug lead is new to me.

David

I agree re. BP5HS, slightly hotter and they stay clean better (though if she has been standing for a while or subject to a few stops and starts I need to attach a 12v battery to brighten the spark).    Actually, it is not the crack in the plug connectors.    I used to run totally exposed metal rods (Peugeot plug connectors) to connect  mounted in some home made nylon plugs with no troubles at all - apart from the occasional explosion in the rocker cover (Bang, tinkle tinkle, puff of smoke).  I have now fitted bits of plastic hose over the rods and cured that one.     If you take the Lancia connectors apart you will see that there is a rod within which connects to a disc via a steel spring and it is here that the spark gets lost.   All the cracks seem to be in the vertical bit, not in the bit that fits into the rocker case cover, so there is no leakage of spark to the cover.
It's the Asperger's, sorry.

Indeed - my new "Omicron" style connectors have an exposed brass rod, not had any bang, tinkles yet !

On another subject, I have finally taken the plunge and gone French with the Aprilia. So, sorry no more PGY ..... Ultimately, a very straight forward process and if anyone is interested I will write up the procedure.

The rear plate fits well (just placed for the moment) but I am going to try and get away with the Italian sized front one and do away with the central one.

To that end , does anyone have a picture of the original(?) mounting brackets for holding it in this position ?

Lastly, I have got several new,  original "Lancia" rear numberplate light lenses - but no "Aprilia" lenses. Anyone interested in a swap ??

Cavalitto supply the Italian style front number plate holders http://www.oldlanciaspares.com/aureliab24/carrozzeria.php

Or you could even get your French plates made up in the proper Italian style, not cheap, and not legal either, but they do look good! http://www.licenseplates.tv/antique-italy-plates.html?=

Not legal?? This is a very grey area in the UK made clearer by my MOT man that said the rules governing this can be summarised as can you read it from a suitable distance. This applies to cars that were made with smaller number plate surrounds in other countries like Italy and applies to pre reflective legistlation..... I still keep the UK size in the boot just in case I meet another interpretation along the way.

For mounting on an Aprilia see Dec 2011 VL front cover. Admittedly this required a hole in the underside of the front bumper (by previous owner)......

Tim, I have a small number plate on the front of my car too, but it is in the English style, if you were to put on plates in the Italian style, even if it is the correct number, I am certain they wouldn't be legal.

Thanks, the support from Cavilitto would still need to be attached (screwed/bolted) to the bumper I think. I wondered if there was anything that uses the mounting bolts ?? I suspect that I will have to make something

I have had the French number plate made up in the Italian size (15 euros from monancienne) and it is illegal in France, but I'll keep the standard one in the car ....

Still don't like the new format with hyphens, especially the square plate

I have the "cavillito" surround actually bought through Subito as much cheaper. They are profiled to hang off a 50/60's front bumper. I have one on my Flavia, Fulvia Sport, and turned upside down and tweaked onto the front valance for my bumperless HF. Yes UK "trials bike size" lettering from Tippers and never considered Italian style.

Back to the subject of leaky aprilia plug connectors I thought you might be interested in my test rig for them.
Instead of the connector feeding a normal plug it feeds straight through to a modified plug with an adjustable gap.
Increasing the gap puts increasing pressure on the insulating capacity of the connector.

I have tested all 13 of my connectors and they were all capable of transmitting a half inch (13 mm) spark.which greatly surprised me.
As I am aware that the engine miss-fires tend not to develop until the engine has warmed up I then tested the connectors after heating them up in a pan of hot oil---generally at about 80 degrees C. And got a very different result. Only two of them could deliver the 1/2inch spark.All the others started to leak with the gap at less than half that.
Interestingly I found that at the cold test conditions transmission of the spark finally failed with a fairly spectacular spark jumping from the bottom of the connector across to the rim of the plug recess in the head.
In the hot tests the route of the leak was not evident---no crackling and no evidence of a spark anywhere.My investigations are continuing but I believe the current tracks around the surface of the connector and into the cam cover. Either that or the basic insulation property of the (bakelite?) connector deteriorates as it gets hot.
 Either way it can only leak into the cam cover around the bayonet neck as there is nowhere else for it to go.   

Hopefully this is a better picture of the adjustable gap.

That's me put in my place!

Heath Robinson , eat your heart out - love it !  Ben, are you going to do a cut-away for the rest of the engine ???

Looking forward to further test results

I have no Aprilia, nor a Peugeot 203, so no personal knowledge of the long spark plug connectors. I just remember reading that piece, by an old Aprilia owner, which might be helpful:

http://viva-lancia.com/snippet/snippet7.htm

Another thing to check, at the other end, maybe?

At least I enjoyed reading it...

I have a piece of Bowden cable inner tethering the oil cap to the earth connection but have not had a Bang, Tinkle etc for some time now.

Hopefully I have uploaded a picture of a regular type of Aprilia plug connector that I have drawn.

I think the explosions that Paul Vellacot writes about and David has experienced are due to failure of the spring.I have dismantled a couple where the reduced diameter section at the top has rusted away so that to reach earth via the plug a second  spark has to jump from the end of the steel in the centre to the coil at the full diameter and possibly even further if the spring has rusted to the point where it no longer fills the space and pushes the cup down onto the plug top.

Apart from causing explosions any gaps that the electricity has to jump to reach the plug mean that the voltage must rise to a higher value to make the jump and therefore the higher the possibility of it leaking out before it gets that far.
As I said before I therefore think that when the dreaded miss-fires occur it is because an easier path for the current develops,particularly when everything gets hot, around the bayonet fit into the cam cover.

However, David, please note it only a theory!! 
            Ben

The explosions actually happened with my Peugeot bare  connectors with no gaps in them, I can only think the spark leapt from the connector to some nearby piece of valve gear.   Since I shrouded them with plastic water hose there have been no more bangs.

A bit of Aprilia time today whilst waiting for some Appia brake parts to arrive.

Main job was to fit the new front number plate. I have a couple of spare Appia front number plate frames that I found in a box, however on close inspection I didn't feel they could be made to fit without damaging the bumper.

The solution was a 3-4 mm thick piece of aluminium plate, cut and bent to shape, drilled and bolted to the bumper irons.

I decided on a single stay and will see if the plate bends, but because I have gone with the small plate I think it will be OK. Time and local Gendarmes will tell !

Tomorrow, Dog will start replacing the front floors. They have been patched a couple of times over the years and are a bit messy. I asked Bill Lewis to make a couple up last year, so it is time ....

I am a bit late joining the number plate debate but have just caught up.  Bear in mind the plates on my Aprilia are correct for Portugal pre-war but the fixings are relevant.  From the poor photos you should  be able to make out that the plates are bolted through the bumper into the mounting irons - heavy those irons aren't they?  You can also see the flasher clipped on to the iron.  If anyone wants better photos let me know and I'll have a crawl to get better shot.

All very neat Mic, and so clean !

Started on the passenger floor, so first job for me was to set her up on ramps/axle stands, remove the petrol pipe, exhaust, heat shield and disconnect the battery (I usually do when I am electric welding .... any other points of view on this one ??).

I took out all the seats, rubber mats and carpets but we have covered the door panels.

Next job for us was to inspect the original floor so we can recreate it as accurately as possible, as Andy has found, there are sometimes layers of "repairs" that hide the original. Fortunately I have a very unmolested car so it is relatively straight forward. Some of the front "chassis" section is made from very thick plate, must be 2mm thick.

Dog has peeled off the old floor and drilled the spot welds leaving a large hole .....leaving space for a good look

Especially interesting for me was to see how the sill/floor junction worked. The lower sill box section extends into the floor-well by about 1/2" to provide a ledge for the floor panel.

A bit of cleaning up to do but no nasty surprises yet, more tomorrow .....

Chugga, do you replace the extra re-enforcement plate on the floor panels - or view it as a future rust trap ? I haven't got a decent photo, so will try and rectify that later

Simon if its sound leave it alone , if not replace it with 2>3mm plate, if you look at it its the tail end of the chassis leg so is pretty important , it is a rust trap however if sealed up properly when repaired will be fine j

Thanks James
That bit of the chassis leg is perfect , it's the extra plates  (welded to the "X") on the floorpans I was wondering about. Here i the one on the rear floorpan as an example

My car is S1 of course but does not have that extra reinforcement.
I would be surprised if it were original.

I am following with great interest as I have a complete set of floor panels from Bill Lewis waiting to be installed when my(?) tame welder comes out of winter hiberhation!

Ben, please help me by ensuring that Jim never gets to hear of the concept of welders winter hibernation !!!!

In the meantime I am enjoying your Aprilia engine rebuild posts.

                          Andy

Regards the reinforcement, I would be very surprised if it wasn't original, it is too well done and too consistent across the 4 floors to have been done later. It would take someone even more dedicated than Chugga to do it !

If anyone else knows more .....

More pictures later tonight, maybe

Dog had some more time today and the floor is nearly ready to go in, just the reinforcement plates to make now. The last picture with the remains of the old floor show that the plate is not just a flat sheet, but a pressing that is spot welded in place.

Other photos show the small dog-leg plate repair to the sill then the cardboard template. The new floor is a bit of a fiddle because it sits on a ledge on the sill side, but is underneath on the gearbox side


The front of the seat box section has an old, solid plate which needs to be tidied up, but is re-useable

Final detail is the rolled edge at the back of the floor where it joins the rear floors

i'm sort of with Ben on the reinforcing but also with Simon , its probably an s2 thing , I've never seen it before however all the cars I've worked on and looked at are s1 , however it does look very original and I can't see why someone would have modified the car like that for no reason , personally I would try and save them and put them back however if this is not possible then I can't see any drama in not fitting them , this is how a standard s1 floor should look , I have seen an s2 floor with louvers in the tunnel, obviously original yet totally different, j

Welding is so much easier like that !

In case you think there has been no progress ...... passenger side is finished and just starting on the driver's side

Picture of the finished cross-brace on the floor panel. I will not share with you how long it took, but needless to say they cost more than the replacement floors themselves !

Interesting to note that the braces do not form a chevron, ie the brace on the passenger floor and that on the driver's floor point in the same direction and are therefore parallel, and the ones on the rear floors point in the opposite direction and are also parallel. Just a detail ......

We have recreated the rear fold as well so that it ties into the other side. As I said above,the only thing that I haven't done is replace the piece under the passenger seat, it is very solid replacement panel, done properly some years ago. The pressings are not right , but it is too good to spoil.

The central louvres have been straightened up as well and finally the other side has been cut out ready for the same treatment

As always, there is something that rears its ugly head !

The patch on the floor section under the driver's seat hid a nasty corner. I had expected a small corner repair but once the paint was stripped, half the section was very thin.

A quick call to Bill Lewis and a pair of repair sections (the other one is on the shelf - just in case) arrived at the end of the week - THANKS Bill ! In the meantime , Dog has cleaned the rest up and pre-shaped the front floor. It looks as if water has sat in the footwell, worked its way through the front corner of the seat frame and then out under the seat ! Fortunately, the sill is untouched.

A small repair section was needed at the front of the seat box, but the rest is straight forward because the section around the pedals is perfect. Whilst the car is in the air I will take the pedals apart and clean and paint everything.

We are making and welding new tags along the floor and I will replace the rubber fuel pipe with the correct copper.

Hopefully be finished by the end of the week and I can get back onto the Appia .....

There is always something lurking somewhere to make more work!!!  You were so lucky that the sills were not rusted, that was your silver lining!!!

That is looking good and will soon be as solid as a rock, good luck.

                                       Andy

Sorry to hear it was worse than hoped for all it sounds like you expected "another bit somewhere".

I struggled to work out quite where it needed to be patched.  Is that a vertical section just under the driver's right knee close to the sill?

The gills in the floor.  Under the gearbox?  Where might they be pulling air from?

David

So the patch that hid it was on the inside of the car?

Home straight now.  Perhaps time to think about another car for when the Appia is done, and the two vans, and the work on the R4 :)

David

...and the Moto Guzzi tipper.

David, thank you for reminding me of the backlog, although I think that some of our friends in the cold wastes of Wales have more significant workloads ......

The patch was, as you identified, under the accelerator knee.

Meanwhile, whilst Dog was joggling, I pulled the pedal assembly to pieces. Some nice detail as always, including drilled locating bolts for the pedals so that you can oil the bushes , so when did you last oil yours everyone ?

The brake actuator pivot was seized making dis-assembly more difficult, but apart from that, fairly straight forward. Everything degreased, cleaned and painted. Some of the bits should probably be plated, but I don't have that capacity yet.

The angled bracket on the brake actuator is the return stop and the brake light switch is non-standard. The bottom cover had been bashed a bit over the years and "modified" for non standard wiring, so I straightened it all before painting and will modify the wiring to be more discrete.

looking great Simon, well done

I can see the merits of your one-coat quick-dry paint being able to turn a job like that round so quick.

The peddle photos looks very professional with the white background.  For a real challenge how about a photo with it laid out to match the TAV...

Even with the quick drying acid etch and acrylic paint I warm the pieces with a paint stripper before and after painting, especially at the moment when it is cool and humid - I find it reduces the paint blooming

I suppose the heat gun tip removes any "we can't in the UK while you can in France" excuse.

On the home-strait .......not been able to devote a lot of time recently because we are pruning the vines and I have promised to get our rental property on the market for June, and it is a bomb-site !

On the plus side, I have bought a pair of electric secateurs so I can do more vines per hour - I can prune a vine in about a minute , and we have 4,500 !

Dog finished last week and I've been painting. The oil based paints take an age to dry so I can only do one coat per day.

The pictures show a couple of befores and then inside and underneath painted - the black mat paint hasn't quite dried so it is still a bit uneven. 8 mm copper fuel pipe has arrived so hopefully get that fitted tomorrow along with refitting the pedals.

The observant amongst you will have seen that although the folded edge underneath looks correct, we have welded the "seat" section in place before fitting the front floor. Originally the front and rear floors had a joint which resembles 2 clasped hands, fingers cupped on each hand and then clipped together, if you see what I mean !

I would quite like to get her finished this week because I am planning a recce this weekend for our inaugural Lancia Club France "Rallye de Pezenas" (name still TBC) and it would be good to use the Aprilia for timings etc.
A friend and I are planning and organising this , so watch this space !

 

Fabulous Simon, you pair are quite the dream team in La France profonde!


P

Simon, that is a great effort and looking so good. I hope you hit your target, it will definitely focus your attention.

As for the vines, that is a mere 9 days work, even with a couple of hours lost to showers!!!! Just a thought, does Dog do vines???

Best wishes,

             Andy

Thanks for you comments gents

As a reminder to me as much as anything else, here are a couple of before and after pictures ........

New copper fuel line fitted, just the pedals and interior to refit before a damn good clean !

Looking good. Should last a few more decades down in salt free Minervois ;D

Re the rally we would love to come but you are a day early as we will be in Parma vectoring back West.....

Rally prep delayed slightly due to co-organiser illness. More anon

However, the pedal assembly is in place as is the new fuel line. Whilst replacing the floor we also made new 'fold-over' tags for the fuel line and exhaust shield

Is it design or wear ?

If you look at the pedals, the brake pedal is slightly angled towards the throttle. I always "toe&heal" , or more accurately pivot the foot, when changing down on the Aprilia and it seems to be made easier with the brake pedal angled such. The pedal is very well made, and so I do not think that it is 70 years of braking that has bent it. More likely, subtle design details that you come to expect with Lancias ....

Not sure how clear it is with the pedalbox cover pulled to one side, but you can just see the non-original brake light switch. It now works on a spring when the pedal is depressed. I cannot remember the last time I saw an original functioning switch (would be very keen to acquire one if available !!!)

 

Is that the headlight dip beside the clutch? If the brake pedal looks to be the original shape then it really was a case of every single part being thought about during design. I've never managed the classic 'heel and toe' where you pivot your heel out but I do use the outside of my foot to bring the revs up during changing down on the Fulvia. So satisfying when you get it spot on and there isn't a change in engine note.

Simon,
Looks to me like the brake pedal was designed with a bias towards the throttle, probably? to make Heel Toeing Easier, something I used to practice and used frequently, handy with "Fay" but not much use on my Suzuki  automatic these day, unless you really want to charge up someone's rear end :o
Stan,
I used to prefer having the dip switch mounted on the floor, no chance like these days of pulling the wrong stalk when you drive two vehicles with the controls on opposite sides.

Brian
8227 8)

Simon, I think you have been pushing that brake pedal far too hard!!
In all of the photos I have of Aprilias they are inline.
You can get the pedal rubbers from http://www.cicognaniguarnizioni.it/en/lancia/141-aprilia-1937-49

That cable seems a challenge when driving!

Jai Sharma sells pedal rubbers on ebay......

Thanks Ade - who knows ? It may be a second series mod (my answer to all the differences I come across !) . Possibly, everyone else has straightened them ? Not planning to change it though.

The switch is for the headlamp dip and I find it a bit tight for my size 11's. I usually drive barefoot because my Crocs press all three pedals and dip the lights at the same time.

Re Pedal covers, I have a set courtesy of our Portuguese friend but I left them off for the pictures. Good to have the details for an European supplier of the floor rubbers, previously, I had only seen the American reseller.

My bet is the pedal was "adjusted" to suit good driving technique by a previous owner (and good driver).

A peddle that shape I'd expect evidence of front end damage.

I hope so. Either that or it must have been THE emergency stop of all time!

I suspect tow and heal is something restorers are quite used to.............

I was a little surprised when I first drove my Aprilia that heel and toe was not only possible but came natural.  Depending on the size of ones shoes it is not always possible with a conventional pedal layout but I used the technique all the time in my 1929 Alfa although that had centre throttle.  Perhaps more an Italian thing as suits their style I suspect. I am trying to remember what it was like with a Lambda.

Frank, that is truly awful .......... but I like it!!!!

Sorry Frank , I am having a senior moment , so you will have to explain .......

This afternoon , respite from vines and time in the garage ! I set to protecting the new floors and sills so that they will last another 70 years and Dog prep'ed and painted the insides of the Appia doors.

First off was a litre of "Supertrol" in each sill. This is nice and liquid and was poured in to the front of the sill and a couple of holes in the top with a jug and funnel. I put containers underneath to collect the drips !

Second was high pressure "Waxoyl" injection into the other box sections as well as the sills. There are holes in the box sections already, so no major vandalism. Maybe that's why it has lasted so well already ....

Once done I cut and fitted new underlay and then the carpets and side panels. Just need to fit the seats and ready to go !

Same "Supertrol" and "Waxoyl" treatment for the Appia tomorrow once the paint is dry 

Haven't heard of Supertrol. How does it get around the top and sides of the section? Or does it just coat the bottom for extra protection and Waxoyl does the rest. It's looking very nice inside as it's coming together.

Simon, you being a practical sensible guy you can't be expected to follow a twisted mind like mine.

You find an Aprilia to restore, you to TOW it home, then you try to HEAL it.

I have done rather too much of the former, too little of the latter and I doubt I would have the dedication to write such a wonderful thread as this.

Keep on towing and healing.

Frank

Simon - we need close ups of all the details!!!  Those clips for wires (and pipes?).  What did it take to get the peddles apart and together again?  Now at the end what's the full list of bits that were "wrong" and are now correct?

Here are a few detailed pictures for you !

The interior went back in and then I wanted to move the Aprilia over to the winery, but ...... I hadn't fitted the new number plate at the back. And of course it's a different size , and then the brake light above was a bit messy etc etc

Suffice to say that it has all taken a lot longer. Will show pictures of the number plate mods tomorrow but first was stripping, cleaning, preserving and re-assembling the brake light. The "Lancia Aprilia" lenses were very tatty, original plastic, however a couple of years ago I came across a beautiful glass set. So, now it's time .....

Some lovely details like the toothed, middle clip that holds the lenses and the aluminium shield in place. The shield is cast ally and the rest of the frame is chromed. The shield is not centred and never has been !

I painted the steel back with Hammerite and a very small brush, I don't really use Hammerite anymore, but this was one occasion when it was merited, too difficult to mask.

I have compared the glass lens (middle row) with a NOS plastic (top). Difference isn't obvious from afar , but up close, they are much classier !

So hopefully I can finish putting it all back together tomorrow and swap the Aprilia with the Ercole - I have 20 tonnes of cow manure to spread over the vines and the Ercole is a more suitable vehicle !

ps Stan , will show the Supertrol tomorrow

The amount of design in just that lamp is fantastic. Love the name moulded into the lens. Strange that in an age where product design is so much more sophisticated with CAD and superb production facilities that we've lost all this. Little touches like that would suit a retro car like the Fiat 500.

The thought and effort that has gone into that lamp is incredible and, to my mind, fully justified. Obviously it was all done during the accountants' annual holiday!!!!

The Ercole started first compression, so the switch has been made .......

In order to make the rear number plate look OK with French sized plates, I made a blank, black plate in steel to fit the Italian aluminium frame. That was fitted and then the French plate riveted to it. Bit of a faff, but  .....

Cleaned the drain-holes in the brake light unit before fitting, it will need it because there isn't any kind of weather seal on the unit. Maybe need to revisit this !

In amongst some spares I bought recently were these lovely frosted/patterned festoon bulbs which I used to replace the modern, plain glass bulb - tiny detail, but I know it's there !

And , it all works ..... quick drive around the village to check everything is OK and then into the winery before a wash and run out later in the week.

That's looking great. It's a beautiful colour green.

I like the double number plate - and will always "see" a patterned bulb in there.

A 2CV switch is of the right type.

The poor old Aprilia has been a bit overlooked in the final finishing phase of the Appia, so today I took her out of the barn and gave her a good wash and polish, followed by a nice gentle "get everything moving again" run out

Usual first time out problems, sticky rear brakes, slightly lumpy running, handbrake slow to release, but after a few miles , she already beginning to feel like "my Aprilia" again ! The brake lights were being lazy as well, so maybe need to order the 2CV switch

If I have time tomorrow, I will do the tappets, plugs, oil etc etc

Nice treat was coming across this lovely Alfa Nuovo Guilia 1.3 on holiday from Germany. One of the very last , hence the different grill and interior.

How many miles how often do you think it needs?   I used to think of three miles all in one go every other week as a minimum for a car I could then rely on as transport or for events.

David

I once read it should be long enough to get everything to full temperature, partly to burn off the water and acids that collect in the exhaust after a cold start to prolong exhaust life. I usually do about 10 miles when I do go out. What I never do is start it and just let it run in the garage for a few minutes for the above reason. If I start it, I take it out.

I usually make sure I take "Fay" for about 30 miles which gives time me time to get nice and hot work the clutch and brakes enough to make sure they're ok, at least 10 miles,  the rest is just for pleasure ;D

Brian
8227 8)

Been using the Aprilia over the last few days and she is definitely "my Aprilia" again. So I think that the answer to David's question is "as much as you can" !

Oil changed, suspension guides refilled, tappets done, everything greased, brakes adjusted, steering box emptied and re-filled with semi-grease (Penrite product that someone else has talked about) to reduce the stains on the floor etc etc.

Ever since I have had the Aprilia , I have been trying to cure a niggly leak on the top radiator hose, just a seep, but it drips onto the fan and then sprays onto everything else and makes it messy ! I have made new gaskets, glued them on with
Hermatite but nothing has quite stopped it. Finally I came across a batch of original gaskets which are much, much thicker and more compliant and it seems to have done the job. It still leaked at first , but then a couple of tweaks and now all seems well.

Been interesting to compare the driving experiences between the Aprilia and Appia - still cogitating and will share later !

It was nice to meet Xavier, a fellow guest-forumiste,  this week. He came to collect one of Chugga's stainless exhausts that had been delivered to me with some other bits. He is restoring an Ardennes that is now nearing completion and does look very good indeed. It was his first opportunity to drive an Aprilia/Ardennes so, we took her on my favourite circuit, got her good and warm and then gave her some stick !

He drove her as well and enjoyed the experience , I think !

It is finally time for me to start building a new engine for the Aprilia because I have had piston slap on one cylindre ever since I have owned the car and although there is no loss of power or oil use, the tap irritates me ! (Paul had over-heated her on the motorway 20 years ago ....)

The plan is to build a spare, temporary, 1350 engine/box unit , do a quick exchange and then rebuild my 1500 engine before swapping back. That way, the car is off the road for the minimum time and I get a rebuilt and tested spare engine & box

A couple of years ago I bought a load of spares and there was an engine amongst the bits. It had been badly stored in the corner of a damp garage so I was expecting the worst. There was a lot of surface corrosion , as you can see in the photos and it didn't turn.

However upon closer inspection it wasn't as bad as feared. Everything has come to pieces with care and WD40 - the only difficulty was the dog-nut that needed heat.

It looks like the engine had picked up 2 big-ends badly , which is why it was removed. Otherwise, mains look sane, pistons and bores OK , some wear on the top ring groove etc. It will all need to be measured properly to see what is within tolerances before I decide what needs to be done. To that end, it has been carefully boxed and was delivered to "Serdi UK" in Uxbridge last week along with some original Lancia technical data from the 1940's (available from the LMC Library - thanks Chris)  

I await news !!

Aprilia engines are a work of art, everything is numbered and stamped. The caps clearly numbered, the nuts and even the washers that go with each cap are marked as well.

The vane filter is absolutely filthy with what looks like aluminium shavings  .......

All happened very quickly so not many photos - sorry, will do better next time !

PS - anyone know where I can get a timing chain ?

It looks like the engine has a later 2nd series timing chain? If so Cavalitto had them for 50 euros last time I checked.

Good luck with the rebuild, hopefully the corrosion in the block is minimal.

Noel

Thanks Noel
On timing chains, and perhaps you have already gone through this, but I appear to have 3 systems.

The one you identified, middle one , in the first picture.
A second one , the same length but with more pointed teeth and a solid cam-wheel
A third one with a "triplex" chain, which is slightly longer

And I haven't even checked my 2nd series engine !

They all appear to have the same ratio, ie 20 teeth on the small wheel and 40 on the large wheel - as you would expect. However, I also have another small wheel with 21 teeth ...... now, that would cause problems ! It fits the crank, same pitch as the second one and is definitely Lancia - any ideas as to what it is for ??

Which set to use ?

The second,solid wheel system, has a new timing chain, but more delicate teeth ? The first one, I will need to buy a new chain and it has more wear on the wheels, or the triplex system - difficult to find a new chain I suspect !

A further complication comes with the width (thickness) of the bottom wheel. Although the systems appear to be interchangeable, the duplex sets are wider (21.7 mm cf 20 mm) and would need a thinner shim/washer between the toothed wheel and the distributor drive otherwise the drive will be badly lined up etc ......

Now to the top end, I have several cams and cam-boxes, and again they are not the same. I haven't checked profiles yet but one has a key at the back end. I have never come across this before and maybe it's for a take-off of some sort ?

Finally, proof that the cranks were balanced 

Anyway enough engine-porn - although David will be happy !

Yum!!!

So new information to me in there as well.

David

Andrew and I went through the whole timing chain thing a while back when he was rebuilding the Stainless Stephen Aprilia engine/engines. You can read his tales of woe here:

http://narrywoolan.com.au/lancia-aprilia/stainless-stephen/stainless-stephen-8.html

As you say the middle timing chain and gears are 2nd series, the second with the solid gear is a bit of a mystery. We had one the same fitted to an engine that turned out to be slightly bent, but as we couldn’t find a Lancia stamp I would guess they’re an aftermarket part. And the third set with the “triplex chain is 1st series. The chains will stretch hence you have ones of different lengths. No idea what the 21 tooth wheel is off, perhaps Augusta or Ardea?

As well as the timing chain Cavalitto have complete 2nd series timing gear sets, which can be set up to fit a 1st series crank. Both of Andrew’s engines and mine have them. I don’t know if you can get 1st series bits though, but if it was me I get a complete new set.

I would guess the camshaft with the key at the end is an adaptor to fit a rev counter drive?

Interestingly the crankshaft in my engine has a 1951 Lancia date stamp, shows they were still making parts after production had ceased.

Noel

 Simon, you seem to have a better prospect with that engine than I do with that from the B20. I have always thought with things like engines, nothing is insurmountable, but you do need enough money. I will be putting that to the test over the next weeks!!! Good luck with yours and thank you for the Serdi tip.

Picking up on Noel's comment about the date of his crankshaft, I pulled a half shaft from my Gussie to find a 1955 stamp on it. Quite unbelievable!!! Still, I presume demand was there and maybe they made a little money on them ..

Sorry to go off topic.

                          Andy

Noel,

I was thinking "at last Simon has a new camera" before I realised it was you.  Really lovely images. 

Lots of useful information there, and nice to see all the split pins instead of nylocks and the also the lockwire which of course can't be replaced with modern alternatives.  Having said that maybe threadlock fluids have replaced that type of work now?

David

I think Simon's photos are just fine!

Noel

Thank you for that vote of confidence - I was beginning to get a complex ! - David already knows that I am no David Bailey ......

For reference, Cavalitto have timing chain wheels and chains - around the 300 euro mark for the lot.
David, I plan to split-pin everything as well.

Initial discussions with Serdi suggest that we are at the wear limits on the engine, nothing drastic, so it will probably involve new pistons, shell the big ends and white metal the crank. More than I was hoping for , but probably for the best if I want a perfect spare engine.

First step is to crack-test everything

The corrosion is all superficial, so that's good news

Noel - what does the orange tube do? Haven't seen anything like it before. Does it pump oil up into the crankshaft bearings?

Yes, it's the main oil feed for the crankshaft

Still sorting out and cleaning the bits required and identifying differences.

Today was camshafts, and what I presume is the earlier camshaft (top), has the same profile as later ones but a much bigger rear bearing and consequently a different cambox. I couldn't find any date stamps so cannot be 100% sure of the chronology

Also, there are timing marks on this "early" setup. I have always done the timing from scratch because I wasn't aware of there being marks. How accurate they are I don't know , and will not know, because the cam is badly worn and will therefore use a better one

Indeed a second cam is also badly worn on the same lobes - cyls 1 & 2 for reference

ps - thanks for the link to the "Stainless Stephen" Aprilia, I had seen it before but not the most recent pages.

Serdi did my series I engine boring it out to take series II Nardi pistons and converting it to shell big end bearings on the Harry-type built up crankshaft I had from 40 years ago, and made a very good job. Trouble was they recommended new, steel rods, reckoning that the old alloy ones would not be up to service.  This put the engine badly out of balance as Vibration Free found ("nearly jumped off the rig") but to their credit they balanced it perfectly.   It now runs very sweetly but has taken to pouring out blue smoke so I suspect broken rings.   Make sure the new pistons are the right weight or be prepared to visit Vibration Free!  (see Lambda thread for a very technical exposition of balancing narrow vee engines).

"Harry type built up crank"?   

As in a motorbike or Bugatti T35?

David

Planning on using duraluminium rods, maybe with new shells, depends on final measures, I have a couple of NOS rods so possibly keep as original.

There has been a lot discussed about Aprilia rods, I would rather not use steel rods because of the weight issue - I will take the risk. I have a very good set of 3rd oversize pistons (72.55mm) which may do as well, would just need new top ring grooves cut and new rings.

There may be an option for new pistons from "another vehicle" ....... I await news !

A couple of other things:

Anyone interested in swapping a very good 1st Series exhaust manifold for a Second series ? It has been cleaned, checked and repainted - the photo shows the worst bit of pitting.

Second, following up the topic of 1st vs 2nd series radiator grills. As Ade said, the 1st is much flatter, but more than that, it is much thinner - more than 10mm thinner at the sides, I think the photos show it !

Harry Manning of sacred memory used to do bottom end conversions to big end shells.   I had him build up the journals and remetal the mains but never got any further till 40 years later!

We had hoped to run a short rally around a corner of the Languedoc this year, but unfortunately due to a "technicality" (aka French bureaucracy) we had to postpone it until next year.

However, instead we did the next best thing and organised a wine tasting followed by lunch !

Good turnout with 26 people and 12 cars, including Belna, Aprilia, Appia, Flavia coupe, 2000 coupe, Fulvia coupe and Zagato, MonteCarlo, Integrale , S3 Delta

The only problem was that I was talking too much and didn't take many photos ...... but I did get Mathilda working !

ps - it does look like some has stolen the front wheel from the Aprilia and left her on blocks !

That looks like a perfect Lancia day out .... particularly if you are not the driver, so can sup the wine and not just taste it!!!!!

                         Andy

Very nice. Where did all the Lancias come from, your local Lancia club?

Stan, we mainly had the Languedoc Lancia owners. Several from Toulouse and then the rest from the Aude/Herault. Mike and Denise Jennings were also there in their very pretty,new Fulvia Sport

This week , we were delighted to meet up with a 2 x Artena-owning Lancista - I am working on him to join the Forum and share some stories about these rare and overlooked vehicles (he is already an LMC member).

We took the Aprilia out on my favourite circuit and as always, anyone new to an Aprilia is surprised at how modern they are and how well they go !

I haven't used the Aprilia much for a month or so because of the Appia and the heat, but the Aprilia is so rewarding to drive.

The Appia is easy, modern and without fuss. She works well from cold and has no foibles. I lent her to a friend this week (husband has a Mustang) and she was enchanted by the Appia. She can reach the pedals and once Mathilda had shown her how to select the gears she was away, I never thought I'd get the car back !

The Aprilia is a different matter, you have to "drive" her, think about warming up the engine and brakes, but once that's done you can have fun. Better suspension than the Appia and probably just as quick.

I love them both for different reasons. Will be interesting to see what the furgoncino is like !

Not quite  the "Goodwood Revival" but our village organised a car and bike show today with pig roast.

Good turnout of 50 or so cars.

Cars ranged from Citroen Tractions, DS's , Renault 11 Gordinis, 4CV, Peugeot 203,404,405 etc etc. 3 Alfa Spiders, 2 FIAT Spiders, heaps of Americana.   I wanted to take the (R5) Turbo 2 home

Loads of bikes, most interesting for me were the 1935 250cc Peugeot (same family since new !) and a Ural with sidecar

We took the Aprilia,Appia,Rodeo and Ercole to balance up the Italian contingent. It was also good to get everything running before the vendanges (harvest) which is likely to start next weekend

Pig roast was very good ....... before and after photos !

Seems you provided 10% of the show ;D

No, just the big end bearings built up (?metal spray).

Turned out it was a loose plug sucking oil into the engine.  All is now well again!

Should be getting my engine back from "Serdi" soon, first crank was cracked but 2nd OK, mains white metaled and line-bored, rods fitted with modern shells and new pistons - will report back with photos and details once transport sorted

Not posted here for a while, largely due to other projects .......

The Aprilia has been used on and off, but has taken a slight back seat. And she decided to get her own back this weekend when she let me down !

Even when things don't go perfectly, I have always managed to get her home, but not yesterday and I ended up being towed the last 500 yards ........

Problem is down to fuel supply.

Following a chat with Tim H, I checked my braided fuel lines and decided to go back to rubber hoses because the braided hoses had hardened in places and risked leaking. The braided hose that I have been using is rated correctly for modern fuels, but I am not sure it is up to it .........

I have also fitted a temporary 2CV pump and made the electric pump a priming pump on its own switched circuit instead of being on permanently

A few changes and something has been upset, so I will move the furgoncino off the ramp for a while and give the Aprilia the once-over

Photo shows her attending a concert here in the village yesterday - headline act was a Scottish/Occitan Ska-Rock fusion band - and was brilliant !

It's OK, she loves me again ......

Up on the ramp, nice new fuel pipes (I had managed to kink one whilst fiddling !), quick service and grease and oil everything, adjust the brakes, check everything tight - one driveshaft spider had a tiny bit of play, so that was tightened

A reminder that she is still running with Ben-type couplings, that are still perfect as one one expect !

Short road test and ready to go again

First time I've seen the rear suspension of an Aprilia. Ashamed to say I never realised they had inboard drums and a transverse spring. Thought inboard brakes came along with the Aurelia. What a neat looking set up.

Stan, added to that there are torsion bars that work in opposition to the transverse leaf spring and all mounted to a subframe - very advanced for 1936 !

A while since I have posted here , but she is still very much loved .....

Indeed whilst the trimmer was here I decided to finally finish the headlining. I have been searching for all the bits to refit the rear blind, but I haven't found everything yet and have decided to finish it anyway

Old material has been removed and the new one will be made up and fitted at the end of the month. Need to find a solution for replacing some of the broken mounting points

Gives me a chance to clean and protect the metal and as usual I have come across more Italian graffiti 

The new headlining is in and I have also found and remade some visors, so once the mounts have been tidied up they can be fitted as well

I have been getting a nasty bang/jarring through the front suspension on the rebound after large bumps in the road and after today's drive I noticed a large puddle of suspension oil underneath one of the front suspension units. I suspect something has broken ........

I have never dismantled a sliding pillar unit, mainly because they are so reliable but also fear of their complexity, however, I think that I am going to have to take this side to pieces

Before I start, is there any advice, pointers, tools etc etc please ?

I think that it is one of the later units - TAV attached

Thanks

No idea about the suspension but that's a beautiful colour green. First time I seen the whole car in daylight I think.

Might it just be an oil seal they're gone? I imagine that without the oil there is no shock absorption hence the bang. You can live in hope.

Thank you everyone, I have received a couple of pm's for suggestions. I will post as and when I attack it.

Cabrio welding due next week

There are no oil seals, it is a total loss system and requires regular topping up.  That is the reason for the oil tank on the later cars.  I suggest you do that first and try it out before thinking of dismantlement.   It happens regularly on mine.   Be aware there are two reservoirs, the top one is for the suspension damping and the bottom one is to lubricate the bottom of the sleeve.    Your pool of oil is probably leaking out of the drain plug of the bottom reservoir as there is no very clear route to leak from the top except when the suspension is working and it splashes out!     I use straight 30 grade which seems to ba about right.  Full instructions in the handbook!

Don't know about Aprilias, but in the Aurelia world, there is a range of thinking about the oil in the bottomStill keep 20W or 30W up top, which is doing all the work. Lancia typically called for 20W up top but at one time, 20-30W. In the bottom, they started with 30, then changed to 50, then EX 90. I think we use straight 90 in the bottom, and 30 up top (some say todays 30 is yesterdays 20).

Could well use a bit thicker in the bottom but no real need to do so as bearing surfaces more than ample?

Have just looked at the pix on the other thread and I see that you have the oil feed to the top so maybe I am barking up entirely the wrong tree!

I forgot to update this one - I stripped, cleaned and refitted the upper part of the suspension (shock absorber) but still bangs so I will modify my 1st series spring tool and take the bottom off next. If all else fails, I now have a spare front axle from the Cabrio !